You're reading: Ukrainian Interior Ministry says gunmen ready to lay down arms being shot by their leaders

 The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has said that there are reports that some militants ready to lay down their arms in the east of the country have been shot on the orders of the leadership of the illegal armed formations.

 “We have information that some of the militants are ready to lay down their arms… There is information that the leaders of terrorist groups are [forbidding this] on pain of death,” the interior minister’s adviser, Zorian Shkiriak, said at a briefing in Kyiv on June 26.

He said that the leadership of the illegal armed groups, “is threatening with shooting on the spot, [they] are trying to stop such attempts by those who are ready to lay down their arms.”