Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has placed a former chief of the Ukrainian Security Service department for Kyiv and the Kyiv region under house arrest, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office reports.

"The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office main investigations department has notified a former chief of the Ukrainian Security Service, his former deputy and head of the Ukrainian Security Service's Antiterrorist Center, and former chief of the Ukrainian Security Service department for Kyiv and the Kyiv region of suspecting them of committing a crime covered by Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 365 Part 3 (abuse of office and powers leading to grave consequences)," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement on Friday.

Oleksandr Yakymenko headed the Ukrainian Security Service from January 9, 2013 to February 22, 2014.

Oleksandr Scheholev, a native of Donetsk, started heading the Security Service department for Kyiv and the Kyiv region in April 2013. Former President Viktor Yanukovych issued a decree in March 2013 to merge the Security Service departments for Kyiv and the Kyiv region.

"It has been determined that these Security Service chiefs, having no legal grounds, contrary to legal provisions, with the purpose of suppressing protests, announced an antiterrorist operation and started it in the central part of Kyiv on February 18, 2014. In particular, the Security Service's special operations center A organized the seizure of the Ukrainian Trade Unions Federation building, which caused a fire in this building and the deaths of two people," it said.

The Pechersky Court placed the former chief of the Security Service department for Kyiv and the Kyiv region under round-the-clock house arrest, obliging him to wear an electronic tracking device, the office said. The former Security Service chief and his deputy have been declared wanted.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office main investigations department is analyzing the circumstances of the February 18-19, 2014 antiterrorist operation in Kyiv, including the seizure of the Ukrainian Trade Unions Federation building, as part of a combined criminal case dealing with the illegal obstruction of protests in November 2013-February 2014 by top-ranking government and law enforcement officials, it said.

The pretrial investigation is under way.