The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov says the incident on Ukraine's state border when activists and former Georgian President and ex-governor of Odesa region Mikheil Saakashvili broke through the Shehyni checkpoint is an act of provocation aimed at clashes between law enforcement officers and civil activists.

"I qualify what happened as a deliberate provocation, because one of the goals of this provocation was to provoke clashes between the border guards, police and civil activists who came there," Avakov said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday, September 11.

Avakov said that was the reason why he had given instructions to use neither firearms, nor force against the activists.