Vyhivskyi: 17,000 police officers are fighting on front line — nearly one in five
Currently, 17,000 law enforcement officers are involved in functions related to repelling Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine — nearly one in five.
This was stated by Ivan Vyhivskyi, Head of the National Police of Ukraine, in an interview with Detector Media, Censor.NET reports.
According to him, in 2023, before the issue of mobilizing part of the police force was raised, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Police initiated the creation of a Special Purpose Police Department — the "Lyut" (Fury) United Assault Brigade — under a government resolution. The brigade currently has 5,300 positions on staff.
"Recruitment is now underway not only for 'Lyut', but also for KORD (Special Operations Unit), marksman battalions of regional police departments, and the patrol police unit ‘Khyschak’ (Predator). At present, the total number of police personnel is nearly 100,000, and 17,000 of them are directly involved in operations to repel armed aggression — that’s nearly one in five," Vyhivskyi said.
Vyhivskyi noted that amendments were previously made to the Law on the National Police, officially designating police special forces units as combatants.
According to him, this step was taken to allow police officers to participate in combat operations on equal footing with other components of the Security and Defense Forces.
"That’s the key new function we've acquired. ‘Lyut’ has been holding the Toretsk sector for the second year in a row, alongside brigades of the Armed Forces and the National Guard. In effect, we are operating under military command. We're making it clear — the police have been fighting for several years now. The police are at war. That’s a fact," the National Police chief stressed.
