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Verkhovna Rada deputy Arseniy Yatseniuk Parliamentary Deputy Arsenii Yatseniuk of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (OU-PSD), who is the leader of the Front for Change political party, has said that the possibility of the Party of the Regions and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc joining forces to amend the Constitution - which has been proposed to members of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc's parliamentary faction - would be a test of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc's status as an opposition political force

Yatseniuk said this in an article published in the Profil journal.

"I am not ruling out attempts to knit together a constitutional majority with the aim of amending the Basic Law to strengthen the presidential vertical... This will be a serious test for the opposition, particularly for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc," Yatseniuk said.

According to him, all methods will be employed in an attempt to create such a majority, beginning with using force to exert pressure on deputies and ending with blackmailing deputies with the threat of cancellation of their parliamentary immunity.

"Attempts to usurp power through amendment of the Constitution would be a major watershed in the parliament, the main frontline in the battle between the future and the past," Yatseniuk said.

He noted that six deputies from each of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc are already members of the parliamentary coalition and said that their number could increase.

Yatseniuk also said that opposition forces should not fight among themselves and that their priority task should be opposing the authorities.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, President Viktor Yanukovych said on March 8 that he wanted a reform of the Constitution.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Mykola Tomenko (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction) has said that the main task of the opposition is to prevent the authorities from gaining the support of a constitutional majority of parliamentary deputies.