The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has opened a criminal investigation into the suspension of the Kyiv subway's operations from February 18 to 20, 2014, claiming that preliminary inquiries had determined that Kyiv city administration officials and the subway management had colluded in obstructing civilian protests on Independence Square (Maidan) in Kyiv.

"The Prosecutor General's Office law enforcement, anti-corruption, and transport crime directorate has conducted an inquiry into the legality of the Kyiv city administration's and the Kyiv subway's actions toward suspending station operations on February 18, 2014," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement on Friday.

"The inquiry has found out that there was criminal conspiracy between former Kyiv city administration and Kyiv subway officers. The said persons took certain steps to block the subway's transportation communications by making and implementing a decision on suspending the subway stations' operations with the aim of illegally obstructing peaceful assemblies of people that were under way on Independence Square and the territory adjacent to it," the Prosecutor General's Office said.

To attain their ends, the said Kyiv city administration officials issued a special directive on immediately halting the operations of all stations of the Kyiv subway system in violation of the law and in the absence of grounds for suspending the subway's operations, and the Kyiv subway managers complied with it, it said.

"Due to criminal actions by the said individuals, the operations of the Kyiv subway were fully stopped from 3:55 p.m. on February 18, 2014 to 5:05 p.m. on February 20, 2014. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has started criminal proceedings under Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 279 Part 1 (blockage of transportation communications and seizure of a transportation company) and Article 340 (illegal obstruction of assemblies, rallies, marches, and demonstrations)," it said.

The operations of the Kyiv subway trains were fully stopped from February 18 to 20, 2014 for the first time in Kyiv's subway history.