MOSCOW — Lawmakers pelted the podium with eggs and catcalls before stalking across the aisle, putting their colleagues in headlocks and engaging in other tactics not exactly covered by Robert’s Rules of Order. Smoke bombs were set off in the chamber. Glue was poured into voting machines. The legislative leader directed the session behind umbrellas held by his aides, to protect him from projectiles.

Ukraine’s Parliament was supposed to conduct a weighty debate on Tuesday revolving around the country’s sovereignty and relationship with neighboring Russia, but the proceedings often seemed more like a food fight in a high school cafeteria.

At issue was whether to ratify an agreement to extend the lease on a Russian naval base on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine by 25 years. In the end, it was narrowly approved, with 236 votes out of a possible 450, but not before the Parliament appeared to do some damage to its own reputation. The two sides even got into a shoving match and tug of war over a giant Ukrainian flag.

Ukrainian politics are contentious, and the Parliament is often rowdy. Even so, Tuesday’s session in the capital, Kiev, was exceptional, offering a glimpse of the raw emotions surrounding the country’s divisive relations with Russia.