Ukraine's prime minister told leaders in the country's restive east on Friday that he is committed to allowing regions to have more powers, but left it unclear how his ideas differed from the demands of protesters now occupying government buildings or Russia's advocacy of federalization.

The officials whom Arseniy Yatsenyuk met in Donetsk did not include representatives of the protesters. The officials asked Yatsenyuk to allow referendums on autonomy for their regions, not on secession.

"There are no separatists among us," said Gennady Kernes, mayor of the Kharkiv region where protesters had occupied a government building earlier in the week.

Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland was the support base for former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after months of protests. Last month, the Crimea region voted to secede and was annexed by Russia.

Russia ratcheted up the pressure on Ukraine on Thursday when President Vladimir Putin warned European leaders of a risk to the gas supplies going through Ukraine. He has threatened that Russia could shut off shipments to Ukraine if it fails to pay its mammoth debts.

Protesters in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk are occupying government buildings and calling for referendums on regional autonomy that could be an indication of seeking annexation by Russia.

Before leaving Donetsk for another eastern city, Yatsenyuk told reporters that he favors a peaceful solution to the standoff. However, he left the door open for storming the buildings occupied by armed men, though a two-day deadline announced earlier this week has passed.

Yatsenyuk said grievances of eastern Ukraine would be appeased by the upcoming constitutional reform that will "satisfy people who want to see more powers given to regions". He mentioned abolishing Kiev-controlled local administration as one of the steps to decentralize the country.

The protesters in Donetsk, who have held the regional administration building since Sunday, initially called for a referendum on secession but later reduced the demand to one on autonomy, with the possibility of holding another later on whether the region would remain part of Ukraine or seek to become an autonomous region within Russia.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was visiting Bulgaria on Friday, again urged Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine's borders, and added that NATO is taking legitimate steps to deal with the instability created by Russia's "illegitimate" actions.

(China Daily 04/12/2014 page8)