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UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS CONTINUE TO TOUR REGIONS TO PROMOTE UPCOMING PROTEST. Yuliya Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Moroz, and Petro Symonenko met with some 1,000 people in Cherkasy (central Ukraine) on 7 September and with 1,000 people in Bila Tserkva (Kyiv Oblast) the following day to seek regional support for the opposition protest campaign "Rise Up, Ukraine!" which is planned to start on 16 September, UNIAN reported. Tymoshenko told journalists in Cherkasy that the protest campaign aims at holding early presidential elections and completely changing the executive branch in Ukraine. JM
PRESIDENT TO ACCEPT CABINET FORMED BY OUR UKRAINE? President Leonid Kuchma told journalists in Donetsk on 6 September that he will agree to a coalition cabinet formed by a parliamentary majority centered on Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc, UNIAN reported. "Yushchenko is free to organize a [parliamentary] majority. I will shake his hand and carry out everything I promised without waiting for amendments to the constitution," Kuchma said. While announcing last month his proposal for constitutional reform (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 August 2002), Kuchma called on the Verkhovna Rada to form a coalition cabinet without waiting for relevant constitutional changes. JM
UKRAINIAN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES MOTION TO LIFT TYMOSHENKO'S IMMUNITY. The Kyiv-based newspaper "2000" on 6 September published on six full pages a request by Prosecutor-General Svyatoslav Piskun to the Verkhovna Rada to lift the deputy immunity of opposition leader Tymoshenko (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 August 2002). "Ukrayinska pravda" suggested that the request -- which has not yet been addressed by parliament -- was publicized following an instruction from either the presidential administration or the Prosecutor-General's Office in order to start an anti-Tymoshenko campaign in the state-run media. According to the published request, prosecutors suspect Tymoshenko of bribery, abuse of office, forgery, embezzlement of property, and tax evasion. The charges are connected with Tymoshenko's work as head of Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine in 1995-97 and her position as deputy premier in Viktor Yushchenko's cabinet in 1999-2000. JM
NEGOTIATIONS ON OSCE DRAFT FOR TRANSDNIESTER SETTLEMENT 'SUSPENDED.' Infotag reported on 6 September that the negotiations on the draft agreement submitted by the OSCE have been suspended for an "undetermined period." The agency quoted Valerii Litskay, the head of the Tiraspol negotiating team, as saying that it is "useless to debate details such as the work of the bicameral parliament" or relations between the two sides' customs authorities and armies when it is not known "what we are going to have in the long run -- a federation, a confederation, or something else." Litskay proposed wrapping up the current round of negotiations in Chisinau and resuming talks in Tiraspol after the sides' positions have been clarified by their leaderships. The representatives of the three mediators -- the OSCE, Russia, and Ukraine -- responded that, according to agreements previously reached, the heads of delegations should enjoy full powers to sign partial, interim, or provisional documents. MS