A number of persons will be detained following investigative activities conducted at companies owned by former Ukrainian Revenues and Taxes Minister Oleksandr Klymenko, Ukrainian Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said.

"The decisions to detain a number of persons will be made following 151 searches," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday, adding that the persons in question are those who continue carrying on criminal activities for Klymenko's benefit.

Searches at Klymenko's companies will continue into the evening and possibly the night, detentions are to take place after them, he said.

"I will not speak about the detained persons until searches are over. [...] We're planning to conclude searches [...] until late into the evening," Matios said adding that investigative activities may possibly continue at night as well.

Searches are being conducted in Kyiv and Odesa, he said. Law enforcement officers prevented the key persons of interests in the criminal case from leaving the country, Matios said.

No searches of journalists from the Radio Vesti station were conducted, he said.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, in turn, said at the same briefing that the operation at the Gulliver shopping center, several stories of which are owned by the ex-minister and his family, do not relate to the activities of journalists, including from Vesti, directly, they only apply to the economic component.