Kyiv, January 31 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Police have opened criminal proceedings due to the abduction by unknown persons of Automaidan leader Dmytro Bulatov.

"Criminal proceedings have been launched under Part 2, Article 146 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine 'illegal confinement or abduction.' An investigative team consisting of experienced employees of investigative and operational units has been created. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry is overseeing the investigation," the public liaisons department of the Interior Ministry's main office in Kyiv reported.

The police reported that Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko turned to the police at 2330 on January 30 stating that Automaidan activist Bulatov had been taken to a private clinic in Kyiv.

An investigative team of the Darnytske district department of police in Kyiv could not question the victim in detail regarding his condition.

The acting chief of the Kyiv police, Valeriy Mazan, said that according to Bulatov's friends, on January 22, at the intersection of one of the streets in the Desniansky district of Kyiv, unknown men hit him with a blunt object in the head and pushed him into a car, drove away in an unknown direction, illegally held him, and left him in a forest on January 30.

Bulatov reached the village of Vyshenky, Boryspil district, Kyiv region, and appealed to a local resident, who informed the victim's friends about his whereabouts. Then the man was taken to a clinic.

"According to the preliminary diagnosis of doctors, the victim sustained numerous bruises on the body and an incised ear wound," reads the statement.

The police also said that it received a report on January 30 at 2330 that a car driven by Bulatov before he disappeared was found in a parking area in the Dniprovsky district of Kyiv. The car was delivered to the Darnytske district department of police.

Police officers are conducting a number of necessary measures to establish the circumstances of the crime.

Kyiv Regional Police spokesman Mykola Zhukovych told Interfax-Ukraine that the police cannot interrogate Bulatov as a victim as part of criminal proceedings, as his doctors are not permitting them to talk with him.

"We will try to interview him, but the doctors have not currently given us the opportunity to talk with him, and all information comes from his friends or lawyer," he said, adding that it was unclear when such an opportunity would arise.

He said that the case on Bulatov's abduction had been submitted for investigation to the Interior Ministry's main office in Kyiv region.

Last week the media reported that Bulatov did not answer his mobile phone from January 23.

On January 23, Bulatov's wife wrote a statement at the police through her lawyer regarding the disappearance of her husband. She appealed to the Darnytske district department of Police in Kyiv.

Bulatov was found alive on January 30. He was held by unknown men. He had been severely beaten.