Ukraine Presidential Crisis Reaches Boiling Point

KIEV, Ukraine -- The political crisis over Ukraine's disputed presidential election threatened Sunday to tear the nation apart as leaders of eastern provinces pressed demands bordering on separatism and opposition supporters pledged to block the outgoing president's movements if he didn't meet their demands.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko warned that the bitter struggle over which of them was the legitimate winner of the Nov. 21 vote risked escalating into violence and regional conflict. 



Yanukovych, the officially declared winner of the campaign, met with supporters from 17 regional councils in eastern and southern Ukraine who gathered to discuss demands for autonomy or independence should Yushchenko succeed in having the official results overturned. Yanukovych, whose power base is the largely Russian-speaking east, urged caution. 



"I'm warning you against any radical measures," he said. "Once the first drop of blood is spilled, we will not be able to stop it." 



In the end, the gathering called for a December referendum "to determine the region's status." Meanwhile, the council of the Donetsk region, also in the east, voted 156 to 1 to hold a Dec. 5 referendum on forming a republic within a federal Ukrainian state. 



Yanukovych, who is backed by Moscow, did not endorse the demands of the separatists, who basically envision dividing the country into two autonomous regions with a figurehead president and weak central government. 



Instead, he stressed that outgoing President Leonid D. Kuchma and the National Security and Defense Council should make Yushchenko's supporters stop blocking access to the Cabinet building and other government offices in Kiev. 



Tens of thousands of Yushchenko backers have been camped out in the center of the capital for a week, demonstrating against election results they regard as fraudulent. Yushchenko, seen as a pro-Western democratic reformer, draws most of his support from Kiev and the country's primarily Ukrainian-speaking western region. 



The final outcome of the crisis likely will determine whether this former Soviet republic of 48 million moves toward warmer ties with the United States and Europe, pursues a tighter relationship with Russia or cleaves into two adversarial halves, one looking east and the other west. 



Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who has been helping to mediate the crisis, expressed concern about the hardening regional divisions in Ukraine. Asked in a television interview whether there was a danger of Ukraine splitting, he replied: "This is a realistic threat, especially if it is supported by outside forces." 



"Even if it ends with Yushchenko becoming president -- which is most likely, after repeated procedures and so on -- it is difficult to believe that east Ukraine will fall in love with him," Kwasniewski added.