Putin, Obama discuss solution to Ukraine crisis

The Kremlin said in its account of the conversation that Putin talked about action by extremists in Ukraine and suggested “possible steps by the international community to help stabilize the situation” in Ukraine. It added that Putin also pointed at an “effective blockade” of Moldova's separatist region of Trans-Dniester, where Russia has troops.

Russia and the local authorities have complained of Ukraine's recent moves to limit travel across the border of the region on Ukraine's southern border. There were fears in Ukraine that Russia could use its forces in Trans-Dniester to invade.

Deep divisions between Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern regions, where many favour close ties with Moscow, and the Ukrainian-speaking west, where most want to integrate into Europe, continue to fuel tensions.

The Crimean Peninsula, where ethnic Russians are a majority, voted this month to secede from Ukraine before Russia formally annexed it, a move that Western countries have denounced as illegitimate. Talk percolates of similar votes in other Ukrainian regions with large Russian populations, although none has been scheduled.

Russia has pushed strongly for federalizing Ukraine giving its regions more autonomy but Ukraine's interim authorities in Kiev have rejected such a move. The one vote that has been scheduled is a presidential election on May 25.

“Only an all-Ukrainian referendum, not the early presidential elections, could to a large extent stabilize the political situation and preserve Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Yanukovych said in a statement carried by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russia's state RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Alexei Mukhin, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, as saying while a nationwide referendum would be difficult to organize in each of Ukraine's provinces, the country's southeastern regions could follow Yanukovych's advice.