Alleged Russian Colonel Strelkov makes public appearance as self-proclaimed chief of ‘Donbass People’s Militia’

The man who Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) wants most in eastern Ukraine, alleged Russian Military Intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov, has emerged beyond command-and-control recordings to give a news conference in the restive city of Sloviansk on April 26, reported Life News, a Russian media outlet. 

Video footage shows him dressed in military fatigue with a Saint George ribbon tied to his left arm as the self-proclaimed commander of the “Donbass People’s Militia.” Sitting beside Denis Pushilin, who calls him the chairman of “People’s Republic of Donbass,” the Russian acknowledged that the SBU on April 25 had detained self-proclaimed Sloviansk Deputy Mayor Ihor Perepychayenko in Donetsk Airport.

Strelkov, who the SBU has depicted with only a composite drawing, accused the eight Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe military inspectors, whom pro-Russian militants abducted on April 25, of being “NATO spies.”

He added they would only be exchanged for pro-Russian “activists” who Ukrainian authorities have in custody. Known under the codename Strilok in alleged command-and-control recordings that the SBU has made public, Strelkov claimed that the four roadblocks that the counterterrorism operation took over on April 24-25 are now back under the control of Kremlin-backed militants.

He and Pushilin announced plans to hold an oblast-wide referendum in Donetsk on May 11 that asks one question: "Do you support the act of the proclamation of the People's Republic of Donbass?"

Strelkov is wanted by authorities for numerous crimes, including terrorism. He is believed to be the chief commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in charge of Russian Military Intelligence personnel, subversives, militants, and a network of Russian and Ukrainian agents working on behalf of Russia.

An Security Service of Ukraine sketch of Igor Strelkov.

Officials in Moscow have denied any involvement in the unrest in eastern Ukraine and claim that Ukrainians are the only ones taking part in a separatist movement.

The SBU has implicated Strelkov in the ambush of a Ukrainian anti-terrorist team on April 13 that left one SBU captain dead. He also is suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of politicians, civic activists and journalists, including the murder of Horlivka City Councilman Volodymyr Rybak.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.