SEVASTOPOL, February 4 /TASS/. Ukraine’s second president, Leonid Kuchma, may be deprived of his title of the honorary citizen of Sevastopol formally for his recent calls to return Crimea to Ukraine and continue a security operation in the Donbas region.

On Thursday, several public organizations in Sevastopol started collecting signatures in favor of the initiative. More than 500 signatures were collected in the first four hours of work, the campaign’s organizers told TASS.

"People whom we are asking to put their signatures are surprised that Kuchma is the honorary citizen of Sevastopol. When he was being elected president, he promised autonomy to Sevastopol and Crimea. Instead, he started Ukrainianizing the city quietly upon his election," Tatyana Yermakova, the chairperson of the Russian Community of Sevastopol, said.

The Sevastopol City Council awarded the title of honorary citizen of Sevastopol to Leonid Kuchma in 2002.