KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - One opposition leader is calling today “a black page in the history of Ukraine's independence.”
Parliament erupted into an egg-throwing, smoke-bomb tossing brawl over a vote that allows the Russian Navy to keep using a port on the Black Sea. The extension passed with 236 votes in the 450-member legislature.
The opposition leader says the agreement puts the country on “a treacherous path.”
Analysts say the deal will trigger a deeper split in Ukrainian society between the Russian-speaking east and south and the western regions where nationalist sentiments run strong.
(COPYRIGHT 2010 BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
