Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has supported Ukraine’s presidential election that will hold on May 25, describing it as a step “in the right direction”.
But he said the vote would decide nothing unless the rights of “all citizens” were protected.
Ukraine’s PM described as “hot air” Mr Putin’s call for an independence referendum, planned this weekend by separatists in the east, to be delayed.
Mr Putin also said that Russia had pulled back its troops from the border, as tension remains high.
Moscow has said it will protect the rights of the largely Russian-speaking people in the south and east against what it calls an undemocratic government in Kiev.
Kiev has rejected pro-Russian activists’ demands for greater autonomy, fearing it could lead to the break-up of the country, and has sent in troops in recent weeks to seize back official buildings occupied by rebels.
Mr Putin suggested that Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine could be halted in exchange for a postponement of the referendum scheduled to take place in several areas on Sunday.
But Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Mr Putin of “talking through his hat”.
Earlier on Wednesday, pro-Russian separatists took back the city hall in the southern port of Mariupol after it was briefly taken over by Ukrainian government forces.
President Putin made his suggestion after talks in Moscow with Didier Burkhalter, the Swiss president and current chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The organisers of the referendum in Donetsk – who have prepared some three million ballot papers – said they would meet on Friday to discuss his request.
On the forthcoming presidential elections, Mr Putin said: “I would like to stress that… while they are a move in the right direction, [they] will not decide anything if all the citizens of Ukraine fail to understand how their rights are protected after the elections are held.”
He also said he had pulled back Russian forces from the border with Ukraine to “places of regular exercises, at training grounds”, although Nato said it had “not seen any significant change to the disposition of troops along the border”.
The BBC reports that President Putin is not known for performing U-turns, but his latest comments on Ukraine do suggest a shift in the Kremlin’s position – which will be treated with some caution by the West.
