A Ukrainian Interior Ministry ad hoc commission investigating the death of nationalist leader Oleksandr Muzychko nicknamed Sashko Bily at a restaurant outside Rivne in a police operation aimed at detaining him has found that the policemen involved in the operation acted appropriately.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement summing up the inquiry findings available on its website that, as Muzychko arrived at the restaurant in the company of his associates, members of the Sokol special task force ordered that all of them lie down. Several policemen at the same time shot blanks into the air.

After everyone who was together with Muzychko complied with the order, he himself tried to escape. As police were chasing Muzychko and warned him that they could use firearms, Muzychko started shooting at police first, hitting one of the policemen's protective eyepiece and a shoulder board.

"In line with Articles 15 and 15-1 of the Ukrainian law On Police, officer No. 1 fired his service firearm for effect in the area of Muzychko's legs. The latter, continuing to run, and once again fired back at the policemen, wounding one of them in the right arm," the statement says.

Based on the questioning of witnesses and experts, a conclusion has been made that, when policemen knocked Muzychko down, he "fired two shots at law enforcement officers, causing himself a perforating wound."

"After that, in an attempt to fire another shot, he miscalculated his own movements and the bullet trajectory due to physical force applied to him by policemen and shot himself right in the heart," the Interior Ministry said.

Following another shot, when Muzychko was already dead, policemen, not realizing this fact, took away his gun and handcuffed him.

Hence, the commission found the policemen's actions legitimate and in compliance with the Ukrainian Criminal Procedure Code.

Muzychko died in the early hours of March 25. Ukrainian First Deputy Interior Minister Volodymyr Yevdokymov said first that Muzychko was fatally wounded after firing at police chasing him. Speaking later, Yevdokymov said that Muzychko had sustained the fatal wound to his heart from a shot from his own gun. "He fired his own weapon, which he had fired at policemen. One bullet went through him and another struck the heart," Yevdokymov said.

The far right organization Right Sector demanded Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's immediate dismissal and arrest of all members of the Sokol task force involved in Muzychko's death. Avakov himself said in response that Right Sector had threatened him but that he took up the challenge and warned that his actions toward those breaking the law would be tough.

Right Sector held a warning rally near the parliament to demand Avakov's dismissal on March 27.

Avakov said on Monday that the internal investigation in the Interior Ministry concerning Muzychko's death would be completed within days.