Dozens of nationalist demonstrators protested late yesterday outside a Kiev court that had earlier in the day sentenced three men to six years in prison for allegedly plotting to blow up a statue of Soviet founder Lenin near the city's main airport in 2011.
Ukrainian television showed several protesters being carried by stretcher to an ambulance that had been rushed to the scene.
Russian state television said the anti-riot troops moved in after being pelted with rocks by protesters who were trying to block police vans as the three convicts were being led out of the court in order to be placed in jail.
Lutsenko's wife Irina said her husband had suffered a concussion and head injuries after being attacked by club-wielding police while he was trying to break up the unfolding violence.
More From This Section
"He has been placed in intensive care. They are going to keep him under observation," she told Ukraine's opposition Hromadske television channel.
Ukrainian nationalists have been a driving force behind anti-government protests that erupted in November after President Viktor Yanukovych ditched a historic EU trade agreement in favour of closer ties with old master Russia.
The latest clash in Kiev drew no immediate response from Yanukovych or his government members.
But they threaten to fuel rallies that began to fizzle out last month when Yanukovych signed a USD 15-billion economic bailout agreement with Moscow that also slashed the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas imports.
Lutsenko was a prominent member of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's pro-Western government and remains a close ally of the jailed opposition leader.