KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A group of Verkhovna Rada deputies has said it intends to draft changes to a law providing disciplinary and criminal penalties for violating prohibitions on conducting office searches, MP Vadym Denysenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), who represents Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers in the Rada, said.

"We should draft changes in the law… It is necessary to include disciplinary or even criminal penalties for law-enforcement officers who violate the so-called 'masks-off' law. If you do not allow a lawyer to be present, then you are responsible for, at least, disciplinary penalties, if not criminal responsibility," Denysenko said in the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Wednesday.

According to the MP, there were more than 80,000 searches conducted in 2017.

"Starting in 2013, the number increased 2.5-fold and continues to increase by 10,000-12,000 each year since then," he said.