KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The prosecutor's office in Kiev is called on to investigate a punch up in the Ukrainian parliament that left five lawmakers injured, a pro-presidential party said.
Members of the opposition party loyal to former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko scuffled with rivals after her supporters tried to block a corruption inquiry into the Orange Revolution leader.
Officials from Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions said they had no choice but to use force to remove opposition leaders during a protest in Parliament Thursday, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The Our Ukraine party, which lends its support to Tymoshenko's rival President Viktor Yanukovych, called for an investigation into the brawl.
"We are demanding that the Prosecutor General's Office hold an immediate and unbiased investigation into the actions of those who attacked and that a criminal case be opened against those who organized and were involved in this bloody fight," the party was quoted by the Interfax news agency in Ukraine as saying.
Tymoshenko is accused of misdirecting funds from the sale of carbon credits to help pay pensions during an economic crisis in 2009. She says she is a target of a "terror" campaign launched by her rivals.
Brawls in the Ukrainian Parliament are common. The interior of the building housing the Ukrainian Parliament was severely damaged in April when lawmakers clashed over a deal to extend the lease for the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
