A police officer has been killed and about 100 other officers injured in clashes with protesters outside Ukraine's parliament today.
Scuffles broke out between nationalist protesters and police outside the Supreme Rada in Kiev this afternoon after a controversial vote to give greater power to separatist regions in the east.
Some Ukrainians oppose changing the constitution, saying that it would threaten the country's sovereignty and independence.
Police officers were injured in the protest today when an object thrown from the crowd, believed to be a grendade, exploded.
About 100 demonstrators, most of them members of Svoboda, a nationalist party that holds only a handful of seats in parliament, were involved in the clashes.
A military conflict between government troops and Russia-backed separatists has been raging since April 2014, claiming more than 6,800 lives.
A total of 265 deputies in the 450-seat parliament gave preliminary approval today to the changes proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Three parties that are part of the majority coalition in parliament, however, opposed the constitutional changes.
Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who opposed the changes, said: "This is not a road to peace and not a road to decentralisation.This is the diametrically opposite process, which will lead to the loss of new territories."
A final vote on the constitutional changes is to be held during parliament's autumn session, which begins tomorrow.
Additional reporting by the Press Association
