A month-long political standoff between the opposition and pro-premier coalition neared an end Friday when President Viktor Yushchenko and Yanukovych agreed to hold early elections. The opposition insists that the elections be set for July and the ruling coalition is pushing for the fall.
"The neutral position of our strategic partners is not conducive to resolution of the current political conflict," Yanukovych said, adding that could exacerbate civil confrontation and split the country.
Russia said earlier Thursday it may consider mediation in Ukraine if the former Soviet republic formally requests it.
"We know about the proposal of Yanukovych," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said. "We are ready to consider it if the Ukrainian proposal is more concrete."
Ukraine's opposition said it is ready to return to parliament and pass all necessary laws to settle the crisis.
President Yushchenko said if Ukraine's political forces fail to reach a compromise and overcome an ongoing crisis, a decision on snap parliamentary elections will be made by the National Security and Defense Council.
"If no results are produced, I will have to call an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, which will address these matters," he said.
Pro-presidential factions quit the disbanded parliament April 19.
Yushchenko said Friday he is ready to "temporarily" suspend his decree disbanding parliament as it meets for a plenary session, but did not provide details on the legal status of his decree.
Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said June 24 is the only legitimate date for a parliamentary election, as established by presidential decree, but said the president is ready to move back it to July 8 if representatives of all political forces meet in parliament for one day and reach a compromise solution.
The Communist Party (CPU) said it will not team up with the Party of Regions at early parliamentary elections if they are held. A CPU leader said the party will make it into the Supreme Rada in any event.
Rada Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, whose Socialist Party joined the ruling coalition with Yanukovych's Party of Regions and the Communists last summer, said previously early parliamentary elections were unlikely to change the situation.
Yanukovych, however, ruled out a new coalition with Our Ukraine, and said it should have been formed earlier, following the March 26 elections, when the Party of Regions emerged as the leader. "We came across excessive political ambitions, which prevented such a coalition from being formed," the premier said in a reference to Our Ukraine.
He also called for abolishing all decisions adopted since April 2 when the president signed the first decree to dissolve parliament. "A zero option means that all previous decisions passed by all branches of power since April 2 must be annulled," he said. "We have discussed this with the president, and these agreements must be realized."
As the political impasse deteriorated, the ruling coalition also voted on a series of legislative initiatives but they were never signed into law by the president.
Most of the tent camps set up in central Kiev by protesters against the president's two decrees to dissolve Rada and call early elections have been dismantled after Yushchenko and Yanukovych reached a deal last week following four weeks of consultations.
Tensions in the ex-Soviet state have persisted since Yanukovych came to power as prime minister after the March 2006 parliamentary elections, following his defeat by Yushchenko in the 2004 presidential election
