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Kiev forces detain nearly 100 people in special operation

Three of them were charged with participation in illegal activity as part of a reconnaissance and sabotage group and another one has been accused of cooperating with foreign special services

© Mikhail Sokolov//TASS

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KIEV, December 21. /TASS/. Kiev troops have carried out a special operation in the Donetsk region in which around 100 people were detained, an advisor to the head of the country’s Security Service (SBU) said on Monday.

Three detained residents of Avdeevka, to the north of Donetsk, have been charged with participation in illegal activity as part of a reconnaissance and sabotage group and another one has been accused of cooperating with foreign special services, Yuri Tandit told the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

The special operation involved representatives of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, Defense Ministry and the SBU. "The detainees had their weapons seized and were interrogated, and most of them were released after the operation," he said.

Similar special operations will be conducted in the future "in the areas where there is the need to ensure Ukraine’s laws and integrity of the state," the official said.

Ukraine’s SBU has earlier announced that mass detentions have been carried out in the Donetsk region’s Krasnogorovsk (to the west of Donetsk). A total of 85 people have been held for alleged links to activity of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.

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