The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has denied Odesa region administration head Mikheil Saakashvili's allegations that Interior Minister Arsen Avakov controls informal armed units.

"Concerning informal armed units which, as he [Saakashvili] says, the minister controls and finances from his corrupt revenues - he also called them private armies that need to be done away with - the Interior Ministry qualifies the Odesa regional administration head's words as absolute lies, [the words are] insulting and inconsistent with the reality. The interior minister, as the ministry's chief, does control the armed units that operate within the Interior Ministry system, the special police units - battalions and regiments - and also the units within the National Guard system. All of them are well-known, controllable, and formalized. The minister doesn't control, and cannot control, any private armies, which Saakashvili hinted at," Interior Ministry spokesperson Artem Shevchenko told journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Shevchenko said it is unacceptable to call volunteer battalions within the Interior Ministry and National Guard system informal armed units, and private armies, and "to speak this way about absolutely legal and legitimate armed units operating within the Interior Ministry system and the National Guard system, in the establishment of which Interior Minister Avakov was indeed involved during the hardest times for our country in the spring and summer 2014," he said.

When asked whether or not the Interior Ministry would sue Saakashvili for his words, Shevchenko said this would depend on Minister Avakov's position.

"I am authorized to comment on the words related to the minister alleging that he controls some ephemeral and mythical informal units. I am saying once again: there are no informal units," Shevchenko said.

Saakashvili said following a conflict with Avakov at a National Reform Council meeting on December 14 that the interior minister controls informal armed units and finances them from his corrupt revenues.