The ex-Minister of Defense of the "DPR" Igor Girkin (Strelkov) said that he had been in Moscow since December 5, as he was unable to officially go to war in Ukraine as part of the regiment. He posted a post and a photo on his VKontakte page.
On October 15, it was reported that Strelkov would return as a volunteer to Ukraine.
“I am in Moscow. Attempt No. 3 to take a direct part in the hostilities against the armed forces of respected Kyiv partners (they are now called some “militants” in the reports of the Ministry of Defense) did not end in success, although it was very close to that.
According to him, for a long time he served as chief of staff at one of the emerging battalions, but later found out that he was not listed in the personnel of an unnamed unit and "in the states of the N regiment." Strelkov also wrote that all this time he illegally carried weapons and ammunition, illegally traveled to the area of the "special operation" and to the frontline zone. He added that he was in the area of the city of Svatovo.
“If something happened to me during these trips, then … it must be explained that this would have been represented exclusively by the“ amateur activity of the adventurer Girkin ”or (at best) an accident during the“ volunteer activity ””.
Strelkov (real name Girkin), also known as Sergei Runov, is a former defense minister of the “DNR”. He became famous in 2014, after the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Girkin led the "DPR" separatists in Slovyansk and later led the militia forces in Donetsk. As The Insider and Bellingcat found out, Girkin-Strelkov, who called himself a “colonel in the FSB in the reserve,” after returning to the Russian Federation for many years used passports to cover up under an assumed name obtained from the FSB. Including Girkin actively used cover documents – an internal Russian passport in the name of Sergei Runov.
Girkin is one of four defendants in the case of the crash of a Malaysian Boeing on July 17, 2014, shot down by a missile from the Buk air defense system in the eastern part of the Donetsk region. The impact killed all 298 people on board – 283 passengers and 15 crew members. In November, a court in the Netherlands convicted him and two other defendants of the crash. Strelkov, along with other defendants – Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Leonid Kharchenko – was put on the international wanted list.