KIEV, May 24 – An opposition lawmaker was rushed to the hospital Thursday bleeding with a head injury following a confrontation in Parliament amid protests against legislation that could introduce Russian as the second state language in Ukraine.

The protest spread to the streets as hundreds of people, led by prominent authors, picketed the Parliament building, threatening massive disobedience next month when Ukraine hosts the Euro-2012 soccer tournament.

The confrontation, which involved more than 70 lawmakers, forced Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to close session early, delaying the legislation indefinitely.

The delay is a setback for President Viktor Yanukovych, whose administration has apparently tried to speed up its approval ahead of parliamentary elections in October.

The opposition, which views the legislation as hurting the Ukrainian language and potentially pushing the country towards a union with Russia, praised the delay as a victory.

“We have won the fight, but not yet the battle,” Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of the opposition For Ukraine group in Parliament, said. “In the near future there will new attempts by provocateurs to destroy our language.”

“That’s why tomorrow we should stay on alert,” Kyrylenko said.

The Regions Party, which sees the legislation helping it regain some of the lost popularity in mostly Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions of the country, vowed to do so on Friday.

“The Regions Party states that the political terror will not come through and political extremists will be stopped,” the party said in a statement. “The legislation will be approved and people’s rights to use their native language will be protected.”

The legislation, drafted by Yanukovych’s Regions Party, is seen by opposition groups as extremely controversial and a provocative. It allows introducing a second state language on a given territory if at least 10% of the people living in the area speak that language.

The bill would almost automatically make the Russian language the second state language in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolayiv, Kherson and Chernihiv.

The bill is vehemently opposed by the opposition groups amid concerns that it would discourage people from using the Ukrainian language in those regions. The groups insist it would have devastating consequences for the national identity.

Yanukovych has been seeking speedy approval of the legislation and has dispatched his top lieutenant, Andriy Kliuyev, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, to Parliament persuade hesitating lawmakers to vote for the bill.

But the efforts failed after the confrontation erupted between the lawmakers. Mykola Petruk, a member of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, who emerged from the crowd with the head injury and bleeding, was rushed to the hospital.

Vadym Kolesnychenko, a member of the Regions Party who drafted the controversial bill, was beaten by a group of opposition deputies in the session hall. He had no obvious injuries. (tl/ez)