SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine - A referendum to determine whether residents in Ukraine's flashpoint peninsula of Crimea want greater autonomy has been pushed forward to March 30, the spokeswoman of the region's newly-chosen prime minister Sergiy Aksyonov said on Saturday.

The vote had originally been planned for May 25, on the same day as presidential elections set by parliament following the ouster of the pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych.