Members of an assembly in eastern Ukraine vowed yesterday to press for a referendum on forming an autonomous "republic" if protests handed the presidential election to Mr Viktor Yushchenko.
Deputies in the Donetsk region pledged to form an "East-South" autonomous republic, along with the Crimea region, which already enjoys more powers than Ukraine's 26 other regions.
"If they don't clear people out of Kiev squares on Saturday and Sunday, we should, in an orderly, constitutional way, stage a referendum of trust to determine this country's make-up," Donetsk Mayor Mr Alexander Lukyanchenko told the assembly. "We can live without that half [of the country], but can they live without us?"
The disputed election has highlighted Ukraine's centuries-old divide between the east and the west.