Independent MP Volodymyr Lytvyn has said that there have been six statements made on the withdrawal of MPs from the Batkivschyna faction.

"There's no need to hope for some kind of mass migration, but deputies will be more active by 2015," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

While commenting on the withdrawal of two MPs from Batkivschyna on Thursday, the former parliament speaker said: "As far as I know, there were six such statements... As far as I know, there was an agreement not to read out these statements."

He said that due to the fact that "the situation escalated yesterday," the statements on withdrawal were announced "as a preventive step." Lytvyn also said that as far as he knows, the withdrawal of deputies was not announced, as the leaders of the opposition factions threatened to block the work of parliament if these statements were read out.

Earlier, Viacheslav Kutovy and Volodymyr Kupchak announced they were leaving the Batkivschyna group in the legislature.

Kupchak, in explaining his departure from Batkivschyna, said the group had betrayed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who had asked for an end to the Rise Up, Ukraine! campaign.

He also claimed that, after he had voted in favor of a draft law on a financial recovery bank, a bill opposed by Batkivschyna, he received threats of physical violence from Yatseniuk.