There was uproar in the Ukrainian parliament, with egg-throwing, brawling and the detonation of smoke bombs, ahead of an April 27 2010 vote to approve the extension by 25 years of a Russian naval base at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, international media said.

According to the BBC, the chamber's speaker had to be shielded by umbrellas as he was pelted with eggs, with MPs from the governing Party of the Regions protecting the parliamentary rostrum.
 
The deal, concluded last week by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, previously sparked public protests in Kyiv.
 
After proceedings of about 40 minutes, Ukrainian MPs approved the deal with 236 votes, 10 over the minimum required for ratification.
 
In Moscow, the deal was ratified on April 27 by Russia’s lower house of parliament.
 
On April 24, thousands of opposition demonstrators marched in front of the parliament building in Kyiv to protest against the deal.
 
CNN reported that parliamentary opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who lost to Yanukovych in the presidential election run-off in February 2010, told protesters that the ratification of the treaty must be prevented at all costs.
 
Tymoshenko said that Yanukovych was "selling out" Ukraine, had "openly embarked on the path of destruction of [Ukraine's] national interests, and has actually begun the process of eliminating the state's sovereignty," according to a transcript of the speech on her website.
 
After the deal was signed by Yanukovych and Medvedev, Tymoshenko said that it violated part of the Ukrainian constitution, which forbids the country from hosting foreign military bases after 2017.
 
On April 22, reporting for the Voice of America from Tallinn, Peter Fedynsky quoted US secretary of state Hillary Clinton as having said that the deal did not represent a Ukrainian drift towards Russia.

Asked about the Russian-Ukrainian Black Sea fleet agreement, Clinton said that the decision by Yanukovych should be seen as an attempt to balance his country's foreign policy, not a step away from the West toward Russia.

"I think that given Ukraine's history and geographic position, that balancing act is a hard one, but it makes sense to us," Clinton said.

Nato Secretary General Anders Rasmussen said that the Russian-Ukrainian Black Sea Fleet agreement was a bilateral arrangement.

"We decided that Ukraine, and Georgia by the way, will become members of Nato, provided of course that they show a wish, and provided that they fulfill the necessary criteria," Rasmussen said.

Yanukovych co-operated with Nato when he was prime minister, but now says the Ukrainian people are not ready for membership in the Western alliance.

Russia opposed Nato expansion in Eastern Europe and remains adamant that Ukrainian and Georgian membership in the alliance would upset regional security.

Yanukovych and Medvedev said that the fleet agreement will extend Russia's lease on the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol until at least 2042. Medvedev says his country needed predictability for its fleet, which had been scheduled to leave in 2017.

He and Yanukovych agree it creates the needed assurances, adding that he and Yanukovych are in agreement that it creates bigger and better guarantees for European security in the Black Sea Basin.

But that assurance is not universally shared.

Marina Luzhikova, Moscow editor of the Regional Strategic Research Magazine, told VOA the Ukrainian-Russian agreement was reached hastily with little consideration for its international ramifications.

For example, she points to Ukraine's territorial dispute with Romania over the Black Sea's oil-rich Snake Island.

Luzhikova notes that Romania has expressed concern Ukraine may turn to a third power to protect its interests. To avoid such misunderstanding, Ukrainian leadership should act within a legal framework and reach various international agreements within that framework. Otherwise, she cautions, they will be nullified, and will place Ukraine's international partners in awkward positions.

Luzhikova says Bulgarian and Romanian diplomats at the Nato conference are expressing private reservations about the Russian-Ukrainian agreement.

A Bulgarian diplomat told VOA that Black Sea countries are concerned about the influence the Russian fleet may exert in the region during the next quarter century.

The diplomat raised particular concern about Moscow's interest in purchasing French Mistral helicopter carriers. He notes these are assault ships designed for offence, not defence, and wonders what use they have in the Black Sea.

Members of the Ukrainian opposition are protesting the fleet agreement as illegal. Luzhikova mentions several of their objections.

Luzhikova says the agreement violates the Ukrainian constitution, the country's national security act, its national defence doctrine, and the national security doctrine.

Chapter One, Article 17 of the Ukrainian constitution prohibits the presence of foreign military bases in Ukraine.

The opposition claims the agreement will also make it impossible for Ukraine to pursue non-aligned status, independent of Moscow and Nato.