Law enforcement agencies have detained four employees of the Interior Ministry, who under the orders of former Interior Minister Oleksandr Zakharchenko, removed over 400 AKS-74U carbines from the ministry's stockpiles and gave them to illegal gangs during Maidan 2013-2014, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has announced.

"Yesterday and today, as a part of a joint operation of Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Ministry, four officers of the Interior Ministry were arrested, including an ex-worker, a major of a special unit, who directly removed the carbines from the ministry's depot and handed [then] to illegal gang groups," he said during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kyiv on Friday.

Avakov said that during the Maidan events, 408 AKS-74U carbines (5.45 mm caliber) disappeared from the ministry's warehouses

"In general the PGO opened a criminal case against a criminal group led by ex-interior minister Zakharchenko, who ordered the issue of arms from the ministry's depots for illegal armed formations," Avakov said.

He said those detained today were the direct executors of the order.