KIEV, June 4 – New clashes are likely between pro-government and opposition groups on Tuesday amid attempts by the Regions Party to push through legislation to make Russian the second state language in Ukraine.

A similar attempt on May 24 left one opposition lawmaker bleeding with a serious head injury and blocked the work of Parliament for two days.

The confrontation, involving more than 70 lawmakers, has forced Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to suggest that Parliament must be dismissed for early elections to ease the tensions.

“The government is desperately seeking more tensions in the country,” Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of the opposition For Ukraine group, said. “I simply cannot explain its maniacal attempts to push through Parliament legislation that splits society.”

Potentially making thing worse, the Regions Party has been recruiting hundreds of its supporters throughout eastern and southern regions of Ukraine for support of the bill.

Hundreds of young people, claiming to have come to support the Regions Party, were seen in front of Parliament late night on Monday. A campaign on the Russian social website, VKontakte, has been posting announcements offering 135 hryvnias, or $16, to hire people to stand nine hours in a crown in support of the Russian language bill.

The Regions Party sees the suggested language legislation as 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.

Opposition groups see the legislation 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 would most certainly discourage people from using the Ukrainian language in those regions, and that may have devastating consequences for the national identity, opposition lawmakers have said.

Oleksandr Chalenko, a journalist and an activist who supports the Russian language legislation, admitted on Monday that the legislation will eventually lead to Ukraine’s merger with Russia.

“I agree with the logic that once the Russian language receives any status, any rights, it would be the beginning of the end of “Ukraine,” the phantom state,” Chalenko said. “The reality will simply enter our life.”

Ukrainian people are split on the issue of languages with at least 46% rejecting the idea of granting the Russian language the state status, and 45% supporting the idea, with 8% undecided, according to the most recent poll by the Rating polling agency.

Although the numbers were steady over the past year, the share of those in favor of the Russian language dropped from 54% to 45% over the past three years, while those opposing it rose from 40% to 45%, according to the agency.

At least 71% of those supporting the Regions Party are in favor of granting the Russian language the state status in Ukraine, perhaps explaining why the party has been pushing hard for approving the legislation before the elections. (tl/ez)