Igor Girkin, an internationally wanted Russian ultra-nationalist, is now apparently on duty in Ukraine. Ukrainian activists are rejoicing – and are offering $50,000 for his capture. “I have a feeling that some Buryats could just bring it to us in a trunk,” writes one of them.
Igor Girkin, the infamous former “Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” apparently went to war against Ukraine. This is reported, among other things, by the “Ukrainska Pravda”. $50,000 is said to have already been offered for the capture of the Russian ultra-nationalist, who commanded fighters in Donbass in 2014 and appeared publicly under the pseudonym Strelkov.
On Saturday, Girkin’s wife, Myrslava Reginskaya, posted a photo of Girkin in a military uniform. When asked where Girkin was and if he was okay, she replied that everything was fine and that he would be in touch soon, according to the report.
Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko then offered whoever arrests Girkin a $10,000 reward from his personal savings. Antitila frontman Taras Topolia also pledged $10,000 for the Russian hardliner’s capture. Writer and soldier Valerii, tennis player Serhii Stakhovskyi and Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk region’s military administration, also want to pay $10,000 each if Girkin is caught alive. “I have a feeling some Buryats could just bring him to us in a trunk,” Serhii Sternenko wrote on Twitter. Many Russian soldiers come from peripheral regions, including Siberian Buryatia.
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The former Russian intelligence officer and Colonel Girkin, who led the separatist uprising in Donbass in 2014 and liked to go by the alias “Strelkov”, belongs to the ultra-nationalist part of Russian society. He endorsed the recent Russian attack on Ukraine, which is to be reclaimed as part of “the Russian world”.
However, Girkin long lamented what he saw as insufficient harshness against Ukrainians, the incompetence of the Russian military leadership and the sometimes absurd reports of success from the General Staff. Early on he called for a general mobilization. Otherwise Russia will lose, he warned in September. “I have the feeling that in October our army will collapse.”
An international search is underway for Girkin. He is charged with shooting down the Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine in July 2014. All 298 inmates died, including 80 children.
