KIEV, Dec. 18 – Hours before he was supposed to board a plane to leave for energy and trade talks with Russia, President Viktor Yanukovych postponed the trip indefinitely, citing the need for “additional consultations.”

The move averts a major political crisis amid speculation that Yanukovych was planning to sign an agreement opening the door for Ukraine’s partial accession to a Moscow-led trade bloc.

Opposition groups threatened to call an emergency session of Parliament and take other extreme measures to stop the agreement, which would have derailed Ukraine’s aspirations for closer partnership with the European Union.

“We will buy Yanukovych tickets to Brussels - this is where we need to go,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said after Yanukovych had postponed the Moscow trip.

The development comes as the opposition nationalist Svoboda party has announced readiness to mobilize its supporters for massive street protests to prevent a possible change of Ukraine’s foreign policy.

Yanukovych was supposed to travel for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and to sign the agreement that would have reduced prices of Russian natural gas, people familiar with the situation said.

Although speculation about the trip had been circulating for most of the past week, the Yanukovych office had only confirmed the trip late on Monday night. But hours later, the trip was postponed.

“For successful implementation of the agreement there need to be some additional consultations at an expert level,” the Yanukovych office said in a statement. “That’s why the parties have agreed to postpone the date of the visit.”

Yanukovych and Putin were supposed to discuss issues of Ukrainian-Russian cooperation, “first of al in energy and trade spheres,” the office said. “In particular, to come up with an acceptable way of Ukraine’s interaction with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.”

Mikhail Zurabov, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine, said last week the visit will not take place if the parties fail to reach a principle agreement on key issues.

Yatseniuk said the opposition parties, which increased strength in Parliament following October 28 parliamentary elections, would seek to stop the drift towards the Customs Union.

“The Customs Union is not an economic entity, but purely political union, which has no place for Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Yatseniuk said. “There is no place for Ukrainian independence, Ukrainian entrepreneurship, Ukrainian language and culture. That’s why we’re not going there.”

“If Yanukovych wants to be in the Customs Union, please, we will make sure he has a Russian residency registration,” Yatseniuk said. “We are an independent state and will defend our independence.”

Putin said earlier that Ukraine could qualify for lower gas prices only if it sells majority stake in its massive gas pipeline network to Gazprom or agrees to join the Customs Union.

Yatseniuk called on the government to sign as soon as possible a political association and free trade agreement with the EU.

“We need not gas prices, but values and respect to the people, the rule of law and the right of Ukrainians to elect and to change the government,” Yatseniuk said. (tl/ez)