The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs will create subordinate interior ministries in the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, an official said.
“It is planned to create two interior ministries in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and two Main Departments in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as some 100 district-level territorial departments,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev as saying in the course of the “Government Hour” in the Federation Council upper house of the Russian parliament.
An interim Interior Ministry department has been set up in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and non-staff police units were deployed across the LPR and DPR. Police have to number 52,000 in the new regions, according to Russian laws and the opinion of regional representatives, he said.
Kolokoltsev said that police and their colleagues from other law-enforcement bodies take additional measures to monitor the situation paying special attention to the border areas and new Republics and regions. Interior bodies have boosted public order protection, reinforced police squads and stepped up vehicle inspection and assistance to the population.
“Joint police squads operate in the regions that border with the special military operation zone; they effectively stop law-breaking and fight drug-, explosives-, weapons and munitions trafficking,” the interior minister added.
The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v
