Police divisions to fight illegal drugs will be liquidated and a department to prevent drug-related crimes will be being created in the National Police, Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov has said.

"Earlier, divisions to fight illegal turnover of drugs existed. Did they work? No, they didn’t. Generally speaking, on the contrary, often they created problems. Often they were smoothly involved in existing criminal drug-related schemes. Attempts to change the old system failed… There won't be a reform of these divisions. I will simply disband them," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

He said that all employees of the division (1,051 people) will be suspended for a complete re-evaluation and polygraph tests,

"According to assessments of the interior security department… 80-90% of employees would fail to pass the re-evaluation and will be dismissed," the minister said.

A new department to prevent drug-related crimes is being created in the National Police which will be smaller than the previous department, with 600 policemen, and it will be vertically subordinated and not subordinated to local police chiefs.

On October 22, 2015, Avakov appointed Deputy Head of the Interior Ministry in Kherson region Illia Kiva as head of the department.