KIEV, Ukraine— As lawmakers took up a measure to give greater powers to separatists in eastern Ukraine, nationalist protesters clashed with police outside parliament on Monday and the Interior Ministry said one officer was killed in a grenade blast and more than 100 wounded.
It was the worst violence in the capital since the government took power in February 2014.
The decentralization of power was a condition demanded by Russia for a truce signed in Minsk in February aimed at ending the fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed separatists that has left more than 6,800 dead since April 2014.
But Ukrainian nationalists strongly oppose changing the constitution, saying that would threaten the country’s sovereignty and independence.
In a televised address, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called decentralization “a difficult but a logical step toward peace,” and insisted that it would not grant autonomy to the rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The measure won preliminary approval on Monday with 265 deputies in the 450-seat parliament voting for it.
But three parties that are part of the majority coalition in parliament refused to give their support, showing the difficulty that Poroshenko faces even within his own pro-Western camp in fulfilling the peace agreement.
