Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
© Nikolai Lazarenko/Ukrainian president's press service/TASS
Clashes near the Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev demonstrate that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cannot control the situation in the country, State Duma's Committee on International Affairs chairman Alexey Pushkov told Rossiya 24 TV channel on Monday.

"Nationalists in Ukraine want to assert full and unquestionable power of radical forces. In this case, neither [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel nor [French President Francois] Hollande nor the Minsk agreements will not help. They [nationalists] are not going to take them into account," Pushkov noted.

Poroshenko "has to maneuver - he has to show Europe that he controls the situation in the country," Pushkov continued. "However, I think that he can manage it less and less. And today's events in Kiev demonstrate that Poroshenko does not have complete control over the situation," he stressed.

The conflict between the authorities and nationalist organizations will continue to deteriorate in Ukraine, the lawmaker said. "The Kiev regime will try to prove that Ukraine is a European country ready to accept the so-called European values. But the Right Sector and the Svoboda party and other ultra-nationalist groups using Nazi ideas are not ready to accept the so-called European values. They are ready to fight only for ultra-nationalist dictatorship in Ukraine. Here, I see a considerable conflict potential between [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists," Pushkov explained.

He also noted that the amendments on decentralization to Ukraine's Constitution that were passed today in the first reading do not comply with the Minsk agreements. "These are very conditional amendments. They do not envisage a special status for Donbass. They do not take into account the interests of people that live in Ukraine's east. This is, in my opinion, a kind of a fig leaf with which Poroshenko tries to cover himself in front of Merkel and Hollande, to show them that he is implementing the Minsk accords," Pushkov said.

Over 3,000 protesters against the Ukrainian Constitution amendments gathered at the Rada headquarters on Monday morning. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said some 30 protesters, including the one who threw a grenade at policemen, were detained.

Around 90-100 National Guards members were injured in the clashes, and one servicemen died from sustained injuries, advisor to the interior minister Anton Geraschenko said.

The Right Sector, Ukraine's ultranationalist radical organization, has called an urgent gathering for its supporters in downtown Kiev following Monday's clashes between police and protesters against amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution.

Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian News reports, three journalists have been injured on Monday during the Rada clashes.