KIEV, February 27. /TASS/. Eight police officers were injured on Tuesday during clashes with radicals outside the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, Kiev police chief Andrey Krischenko said.

"One of those hospitalized has the fracture of clavicle and the others are also receiving medical assistance," Krischenko told 112.Ukraina TV channel.

The police chief claimed that "a well-staged provocation" occurred outside the parliament and its instigators had sought to break into the building and demanded that the speaker talk to them.

"We have detained nine people, who took part in the riots," he said stressing that these "provocateurs" would be held accountable.

The situation outside the Rada has normalized, the official said. "The situation is calm and under control. We see only verbal duels," he noted.

A criminal investigation has been launched into "threats or violence against law enforcement personnel."

Earlier on Tuesday, protesters pelted police officers outside the Verkhovna Rada with stones, car tires and Molotov cocktails.

Ukrainian MP Anton Gerashchenko said the provocation had been staged by supporters of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian nationalist organization Liberation Movement wrote on Facebook that the protesters were its activists from the Zarakpatye region, in southwestern Ukraine, who demand the resignation of President Pyotr Poroshenko and Rada Speaker Andrey Parubiy.