Thousands of Ukrainian opposition and government supporters rallied on Tuesday in front of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency said.
Police estimate about 2,000 Ukrainian nationalists and supporters of former prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko gathered on the square in front of the Supreme Rada in Kiev to protest against the Russian-Ukrainian deal extending the lease of a naval base in Crimea's port of Sevastopol.
The deal, which allows Russian warships to remain in Sevastopol for 25 years after the current lease expires in 2017, has infuriated Ukraine's opposition.
Kiev agreed to extend the lease in exchange for a 30% discount on Russian natural gas, but Ukrainian nationalists and opposition supporters have denounced the deal as treason against Ukraine's national interests, describing Yanukovych as Moscow's puppet.
The ratification of the deal by the Ukrainian parliament saw fierce battles between pro-government and opposition lawmakers, with smoke bombs being set off inside the parliament building and eggs being thrown at the parliament speaker.
Yanukovych supporters also rallied outside the Ukrainian parliament, with about 2,500 people involved in the demonstration, UNIAN said. A total of 1,700 police officers reportedly assured security during the demonstrations.
Police officials were quoted by the news agency as saying demonstrators had arrived in the Ukrainian capital from the Kiev, Transcarpathian, Odessa and Poltava regions, as well as from Crimea.
Opposition and pro-government demonstrations also took place on Tuesday near the local administration in the country's eastern city of Kharkov, where the base agreement between Russia and Ukraine was signed in late April.
The participants in the Kharkov opposition rally were carrying posters claiming "Kharkov is a Ukrainian city" and "Ukraine is not Moscow's colony," UNIAN said.
Posters carried by supporters of Ukraine's pro-presidential Party of Regions rallying in Kharkov said "Kharkov is a multinational city," "We have defeated Nazism together with Russia, and we will defeat the crisis together."
The pro-government demonstration in Kharkov reportedly gathered many more people than the opposition rally.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine, which had been hampered during former Viktor Yushchenko's presidency over his anti-Russian policies, have improved significantly since Yanukovych came to power. The new Ukrainian president, whose power base is in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern and southern industrial parts of the country, has proved to be more favorable towards Moscow than his predecessor Yushchenko.
KIEV, May 11 (RIA Novosti)
