Ukraine Deploys 2,000 Extra Police, Troops to Kiev Streets After Officers Killed in Protests

Ukrainian authorities are reinforcing street patrols in Kiev as over 2,000 police and troops from across Ukraine were deployed around the capital after three officers were reported to have been killed in clashes over a controversial draft change to the constitution.

In response to the clashes which started on Monday in front of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada), the Ministry of Interior Affairs issued a statement on Tuesday saying that it would heavily reinforce policing in Kiev by diverting 1,250 police officers from other Ukrainian regions and 950 officers from the National Guard to guarding the capital.

Armored Kraz Cougar patrol cars carrying eight officers each will periodically patrol Kiev along four different routes into the centre of the city, as debate in parliament continues today over a proposed amendment to the constitution that would give greater autonomy to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are partially held by pro-Russian separatists.

Although the proposal won 265 votes in the 450-seat parliament when voted on on Monday, it failed to win a two-thirds majority—a requirement for changes to the constitution.

Greater regional autonomy for the regions is a requirement in accordance with the current tattered ceasefire agreed in Minsk in February by the Ukrainian and Russian governments, as well as by rebel leaders. In its current state, the proposed change is intended to fulfill the requirement for constitutional reform by granting all Ukrainian regions greater autonomy. Poroshenko said in July during the last reading of the draft amendment that the proposal would not introduce a "special status" to the war-stricken regions.

The proposal prompted protests in front of the Rada building on Monday when a grenade blast wounded at least 130 people. Two National Guard officers died in hospital later that day as a result of their wounds while a third was reported dead on Tuesday by presidential adviser Olga Bogomilets, news site Ukrainskaya Pravda reports. She said the officer died in hospital aged 20, after receiving severe head injuries on Monday.

According to former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, the violence resulted from some Ukrainians fearing that the constitutional change could weaken Kiev's hand in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

"Many Ukrainians see this legislation as dictated by Moscow through the Minsk II process," Herbst says. "They fear that such change will weaken dangerously Kiev's control there."

Herbst explains that this need not be the case as the draft would still require that any government in the two regions be voted on in accordance with Ukrainian laws. The Donetsk and Luhansk rebel groups currently holding parts of the regions are considered criminal by Ukrainian law and would not be recognised as de facto governments.

According to eyewitness accounts on social media, protesters in front of the Rada carried a wide variety of symbols and flags belonging to groups such as nationalist paramilitary organisation Right Sector and populist parties Svoboda and the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko as well as others.

Oleh Lyashko, who is a coalition partner to President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk's parties, told independent news agency Interfax Ukraine that his 21 MPs are pulling out of the coalition due to their objection to the draft. The party only has one minister in the cabinet - Valeriy Voshchevskiy, who is vice prime minister. The cabinet has not yet received an official resignation from Voshchevskiy, according to the Minister of Regional Development Hennadiy Zubko.

Zubko added that the government had also not received any official statement from Lyashko directly and commented only on press reports that he had withdrawn his party from the coalition.