Only a quarter of the officially registered private security companies in Ukraine provide services of high quality, experts say.

Press secretary of the State Security Service of Ukraine Svitlana Pavlovska said at a roundtable discussion in Kyiv on October 4 that there are 4,740 officially registered private security companies in the country.

"Experts from the State Security Service point to rather serious problems in the training of private security guards," she said.

In turn, President of the Ukrainian Federation of Security Professionals Serhiy Shabovta said that only a quarter of the officially registered security companies in Ukraine meet the necessary requirements.

"This number is unable to satisfy demands of our clients," he said.

At the same time, Shabovta noted that regular checks of such companies usually refer to documents and licenses, and not to the training of their employees.

According to Pavlovska, 1,073 licenses for security guard activities were issued and re-issued this year, and 1,030 last year.

MP Vasyl Hrytsak said that around a million people in Ukraine work as security guards.

As reported, a robber shot dead three employees of a private security firm and seriously wounded another one in the Karavan shopping mall on Luhova Street in Kyiv on September 26. One of the security guards saw a visitor stealing a USB flash drive from a glass case. The guard asked the man to go to the back room, where other guards were waiting. In the room the man pulled out a gun and started shooting, killing three security guards on the spot and seriously wounding a fourth. The attacker then fled the scene.

The Obolon District Police Office has opened a criminal case on the incident. The suspect was put on wanted lists in Russia and Belarus