KIEV, Oct. 14 – The Prosecutor General’s Office began Tuesday investigating a violent clash between loyalists of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and guards protecting the Central Election Commission, a senior law enforcement official said.

Valeriy Heletey, the chief of the State Guard Department, an agency guarding most important offices in Ukraine’s government, said a group of Tymoshenko lawmakers had stormed into the commission, hurting six guards.

“A team of investigators is currently working at the commission, at the commandant’s office and in a special arms keeping room,” Heletey said. “I am being told that six people have been hurt.”

The developments signals a dangerous escalation in the conflict as Tymoshenko has been fiercely opposing President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to dismiss Parliament and call early elections on Dec. 7.

The early election would almost certainly lead to Tymoshenko losing her post of the prime minister, an option she on Tuesday has pledged to fight with all means at her disposal.

“The government, my political force and I - as a citizen - will do everything we can to prevent the election, because it would be tragic for Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said at a press conference.

The Central Election Commission is the crucial authority for the early election to materialize as blocking its operation would suspend preparation for the vote.

In a highly controversial move, Tymoshenko on Friday appealed Yushchenko’s decree at a court controlled by her loyalists. This forced Yushchenko to respond in the same controversial way on Monday by splitting the court in two and purging it of the Tymoshenko loyalists.

Tymoshenko also refused to finance the early election, ignoring the order from the National Security and Defense Council, the top security body, whose orders are mandatory for the government, according to the law.

In a reference to the clash on Tuesday, Tymoshenko lawmakers argued they have been inspecting the facility to make sure that it had not been doing anything ‘illegal’ in their view, such as preparing for the election.

“We’ve made sure that nothing [illegal] is going to happen. In other words that members of the Central Election Commission are acting in line with the law,” Andriy Kozhemiakin, a senior member of Tymoshenko group, said Tuesday.

Heletey, who is loyal to Yushchenko, said the investigators have been carefully studying the clash at the Central Election Commission before filing any charges against the people involved.

“The investigators’ team has been working and will soon give its assessment of the events that had taken place at the commission,” Heletey said.

The clash marks a dangerous escalation in the standoff between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to a point that makes it increasingly possible for different law enforcement agencies to get involved.

The escalation reminded of the standoff between the president and then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in May 2007 that had let to a clash between guards loyal to Yushchenko and riot police loyal to then Internal Affairs Minister Oleksandr Tsushko, an ally of Yanukovych.

The May 2007 clash was eased only after Yushchenko had ordered the National Guard, a unit of the Internal Affairs Ministry subordinated directly to the president, to take positions in the capital of Kiev.

In the sign that the latest escalation was serious, Yushchenko on Monday again ordered the National Guard to take positions reinforcing the State Guard Department’s ability to protect state offices.

“As of today we are reinforcing and will be reinforcing guards protecting all branches of power where normal atmosphere is being disrupted,” Heletey said. “If [the branches] are blocked, we will use corresponding actions that are anticipated by the law.”

“This is just in case of any unforeseen processes, similar to those that had taken place in 2007,” Heletey said. (tl/ez)