Here's an update from our news desk on the vote in the Verkhovna Rada:
Ukraine’s parliament has tentatively approved a presidential bill on changes to the constitution that would give more autonomy to pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
Of the 368 lawmakers registered at the August 31 session, a total of 265 supported the bill on its first reading.
The bill was submitted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in accordance with the cease-fire agreement that was reached in February in Minsk.
The draft amendment to Ukraine’s constitution contains a provision stating that the exercise of local self-governance in some parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is determined by a separate law.
At least 300 votes will be needed to pass the constitutional amendment at the next session of parliament.
Dozens of lawmakers opposed to the amendment briefly blocked the podium in the parliament in an August 31 protest while hundreds of activists staged a protest against the bill outside of the parliament building.
Meanwhile, dozens of activists who were protesting against the legislation clashed with police outside the parliament building after the vote was announced.
(AFP, Interfax)
Meanwhile, this is another journalist's take:
It seems there's been a bit of a kerfuffle outside the Ukrainian parliament today over the decentralization bill. This is how the Kremlin-funded RT has been reporting it:
Here's an item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. What are the chances of yet more fisticuffs in the Verkhovna Rada today?
KYIV -- Dozens of Ukrainian lawmakers from the Radical Party and the Svoboda political coalition blocked the podium in the parliament on August 31, protesting the first vote on constitutional amendments aimed at decentralizing the government's powers.
According to the draft amendments, "a special law will regulate peculiarities of local self-government” in the districts which are being held by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
President Petro Poroshenko submitted the bill to the parliament on July 15 after pressure from Western leaders to grant areas in eastern Ukraine some self-rule powers as promised in February's Minsk cease-fire agreement.
The pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine insist that the special status of the districts they control should be mentioned in the constitution.
Hundreds of activists protesting against the proposed amendments also picketed outside the parliament building in Kyiv on August 31.
Some demonstrators parked vehicles to block traffic on the streets in the government quarters of Kyiv.
(With reporting by UNIAN and Interfax)