A former head of counterintelligence at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who was involved in the mass shooting of people on Independence Square in Kyiv this winter, as well as crimes related to national security, has been detained and arrested in Ukraine.

"Yesterday we detained and arrested the No. 3 from the former SBU headed by Mr. Yakymenko - the former head of the SBU counterintelligence and general," SBU Chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told the 1+1 television channel late on Sunday.

Earlier, Nalyvaichenko said that among the former leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine involved in the mass shooting of people in the center of Kyiv in February 2014, the former SBU head, two of his deputies and two former heads of key departments were in Russia.

SBU documented facts of the arrival of FSB groups in Kyiv during mass protests.

"Three groups of FSB generals and officers came at different times of the Maidan protests, and this was documented... These are dozens of people," he said.

SBU transferred to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office its part of materials concerning those involved in the shootings in Kyiv's center in February 2014.