KIEV, December 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's Interior-Ministry troops, stationed in Crimea, have been sent to Kiev, Nikolai Balan, head of the Crimean department of the Interior Troops Command, told the "1+1" television channel on Wednesday.

"Servicemen from three subunits — a special-purpose detachment, a military unit stationed in the city of Simferopol, and a military unit stationed in Krasnokamenka Settlement — have been drawn out," Balan said. In so doing, he did not mention the number of servicemen sent to the capital.

Balan pointed out that the troopers had been assigned a mission to uphold public order, during mass meetings as well.

An official at the Directorate of Interior Forces said the laws on militia and on Interior troops proper are not violated in this case. "The Interior troops do not participate in any dispersals. They only serve, as was already made public, as a 'human shield'. That is, our task for now is to ensure the functioning of state power bodies and to maintain the peace," said Dmitry Shchetinin, head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Legal Directorate of Interior Forces.