Representatives of the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko bloc and the pro-presidential bloc Our Ukraine walked out of the parliament, the Supreme Rada, Tuesday after the ruling coalition refused to meet their demands.
"We must ignore such cheap politics and perform our duties, which are to resolve the country's problems around the clock," Viktor Yanukovych told the Cabinet.
He said that the opposition boycott was another attempt to destabilize Ukraine and that he hoped the Rada would continue working normally.
A simple majority of 226 votes is needed to pass decisions in the Rada. The ruling coalition, which comprises the premier-led pro-Russian Party of Regions, the Communist Party and the Socialists, holds 247 votes.
The Tymoshenko bloc and Our Ukraine forwarded 17 demands to the anti-crisis coalition Monday.
The key demands were to hold a referendum to determine the country's governance, to review the Constitution, to defend Ukraine's previously defined foreign policy, to restore the president in his leading role in foreign policy, to appoint the foreign minister, to sack the interior minister and the prosecutor general, and to appoint head of the Security Council.
Anatoliy Semynoha, an MP from the Tymoshenko bloc, said Wednesday: "We will not participate in the work of the Supreme Rada, which adopts laws unilaterally by passing bills proposed by the majority without considering the opposition's arguments."
He said a bill proposed by the anti-crisis coalition that determines a tariff policy for public utilities did not meet public demands or solve existing problems.
Bloc leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and a prominent figure in the 2004 'orange revolution,' which brought Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency, proposed a bill that pegged a growth in tariffs to wages and pensions.
Semynoha pressed for the bill to be considered in order to relieve social tension.
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko of the Our Ukraine bloc said the bloc could return to parliament to consider bills proposed by the president or his bloc.
"A wave of lobbyist and corrupt bills is set to come, which is why we have officially called on the president not to sign laws passed without being approved by the opposition. I think such a position will somehow make the coalition more sober-minded," he said.
Ukraine has been embroiled recently in an ongoing struggle between presidential and premier factions in the country, which over the past six months has seen several ministers appointed by President Yushchenko and then dismissed by the Rada, where the Party of Regions holds a majority.
Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc and Our Ukraine signed an opposition merger accord last month. The united opposition stated that it will seek early parliamentary and local legislative elections, and will demand an imperative mandate for deputies of local legislative bodies, the abolition of December 2004 amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution, and the adoption of a new draft of the country's fundamental political document.
