UKRAINE CRISIS - VIOLENCE Erupts as People FIGHT in KIEV PARLIAMENT

Tempers flared and punches were thrown in Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday as opposing nationalist and separatist factions traded blows.

The punch up was preceded by a heated debate about recent events in several Ukrainian cities, where pro-Russian activists seized government buildings.

Tensions remain high between Kiev and Moscow following the recent referendum and annexation of Crimea - a move condemned as illegal by the West and Ukraine.

A brawl broke out during a meeting of parliament in Kiev today, after communist leader Petro Symonenko accused his political opponents of contributing to the Crimea crisis by using extreme tactics to oust former president Viktor Yanukovych. The comments riled two nationalist leaders, who ran at the podium to physically stop him from speaking.

The fight broke out as tensions in Ukraine are running even higher than usual. Yesterday, pro-Russian protesters attempted to declared the city of Donetsk an independent republic and today leaders in Kiev accused Russia of once again manipulating the situation to create a pretext for war. According to Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, "An anti-Ukrainian plan is being put into operation ... under which foreign troops will cross the border and seize the territory of the country. We will not allow this." Acting President Oleksander Turchinov, said the Kremlin is trying to replicate "the Crimea scenario."

Officials reported that 70 people are being held after occupying a building, in Kharkiv that has since been cleared. But protesters who have seized government buildings in other cities are holding strong.

Russian media reports today the American security firm Greystone has teamed up with Right Sector fascists in a bid to prevent eastern Ukraine from joining the Russian Federation.

Greystone is a former Xe (aka Blackwater) affiliate with offices in Virginia and the United Arab Emirates. Employing "personnel from the best militaries throughout the world," the company offers "large scale stability operations requiring large numbers of people to assist in securing a region."

"We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On March 10, Infowars.com reported the presence of corporate mercenaries in Donetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius River. A video posted on Youtube showed men with weapons and body armor on a street where a pro-Russian demonstration was held. A Russian diplomat told Interfax 300 employees of Blackwater, now known as Academi, had arrived in the pro-Russian city. ukraine crisis parliament law fight brawl battle "law and order" lawyer judge court government

In a move that will be regarded in the West as pretext for a Russian invasion and annexation, members of the regional legislature in Ukraine's industrial center of Donetsk have proclaimed the city a People's Republic. The legislature has called for a referendum on joining the Russian Federation and has asked Vladimir Putin to send a temporary peacekeeping contingent into eastern Ukraine.

Russia warned Tuesday that any use of force in Ukraine's eastern region could lead to civil war, as Kiev seeks to regain control after pro-Moscow uprisings in three cities.

Pro-Russian protesters seized government buildings in the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv on Sunday. Rebels occupying Donetsk's regional government building Monday declared a "people's republic" and called for a referendum on secession from Ukraine to be held by May 11.

Despite Russia's veiled threat that any ongoing action against pro-Russian demonstrators had the potential to instigate civil war and bring action by the Russian forces, Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov has announced, Reuters reports, that Ukraine has launched an "anti-terrorist" operation in the eastern city of Kharkiv and about 70 "separatists" have been arrested for seizing the regional administration building. Is this the red-line that Putin laid down last night?