KIEV, April 15./Itar-Tass/. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry is creating a corps of special units for the protection of public order, the ministry’s website reported on Monday.
“Interior Minister (Arsen Avakov) has made a decision to create special units for the maintenance of public order,” the ministry’s operation headquarters said in a statement.
The report gives telephone numbers for getting the corresponding information in the Donetsk, Nikolayev, Dnepropetrovsk, Luhansk, Odessa, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. It gives no telephone numbers for other administrative-territorial entities.
The operation headquarters also gave an e-mail address to which all who want to join the units can send their resumes, however, did not made public any criteria for the selection of the candidates.
According to earlier reports, Arsen Avakov who was appointed by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine acting interior minister decided to create a corps of special Interior Ministry units with the total strength of up to 12,000 people “on the basis of civilian components throughout the country.”
The ministry’s report, dated April 13, said that the special units would be first of all formed in the east and south of the country, and then - in the central and western regions. “The Interior Ministry is ready to attract more than 12,000 people across the country to the new special units. It will also provide them with weapons, outfits and career officers for the command,” the statement said. It also said that Avakov had signed an order on the creation of the special unit Vostok in the Luhansk region.
On Monday, several hundred people staged a picket near the Verkhovna Rada building, demanding resignation of Avakov and Oleksandr Turchynov - the country’s acting president, appointed by the Verkhovna Rada. The rally participants protested against the inaction of the authorities in the situation that is evolving in the east of the country.