Following the February 2014
Ukrainian revolution, there were
pro-Russian, counter-revolutionary demonstrations in southeastern Ukraine.
Crimea After 16 years with the FSB, Girkin found employment as head of security for Russian businessman
Konstantin Malofeev, nicknamed “the Orthodox oligarch” for his close ties to the
Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin. In January 2014, Girkin traveled to
Kiev, where he was responsible for the security of a tour of religious relics to the
Kiev Cave Monastery. The relics were part of the
Gifts of the Magi and were exhibited in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. During his stay, he visited the
Euromaidan and, after talking to local people, became convinced that the protests would be successful and that Ukraine would fall apart in the near future. The relic tour moved on to Crimea at the end of January, where Malofeev met with the speaker of the Crimean parliament,
Vladimir Konstantinov, and discussed with him whether he would be prepared to take “more drastic action” in asserting Crimea’s autonomy should Kyiv descend into complete mayhem. On Malofeev's recommendation, Girkin was invited back to Crimea at the end of February by Sergei Aksyonov, a member of the Parliament of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and later
Prime Minister of Crimea, to serve as his “security advisor,” who put him in charge of his militias. The official commander of the militias was Aksyonov's close associate
Mikhail Sheremet, but Girkin was responsible for the operational control of some units and their coordination with Russian security forces. According to reports, he introduced himself to local militiamen as an “emissary of the Kremlin”. On the morning of February 27, militias
occupied the
Building of the Supreme Council of Crimea in
Simferopol. Girkin ordered the militias to round up local lawmakers and forced them to call an extraordinary session in which they voted for Sergei Aksyonov as the new local prime minister. He founded the political party
Russian Unity that received just 4 per cent of the votes in the last elections. Girkin’s men forced a vote for a referendum on the separation of Crimea from Ukraine on 25 May. Girkin admitted more than a year later on Russian television, that most of the peninsula’s government officials were against the move. “I did not see any support from the [Crimean] authorities in Simferopol where I was,” he confessed. “It was militants who collected deputies and forced them to vote. Yes, I was one of the commanders of those militants.” He was also reported to be instrumental in negotiating the 2014 defection of the
Ukrainian Navy commander
Denis Berezovsky. Girkin was later accused by the Crimean authorities of negligence for his role in the violent storming of the base. This led to the disarmament and disbandment of Girkin's unit. They attacked and occupied the town's administration building, police station, and
Security Service building, and set up roadblocks. The unit were mostly
Russian Armed Forces 'volunteers' from Russian-occupied Crimea and
wore no insignia. Girkin admitted that this action sparked the Donbas War. He said "I'm the one who pulled the trigger of war. If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have fizzled out, like in [the Ukrainian city of] Kharkiv, like in Odessa". and had fought in the Russian Armed Forces in
Chechnya and
Central Asia, while others had fought in Iraq and Yugoslavia with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On 16 April, he allegedly sought to recruit Ukrainian soldiers captured at the entrance to
Kramatorsk. The SBU presented Girkin's presence in eastern Ukraine as proof of Russia's involvement in the Donbas War. They released intercepted telephone conversations between "Strelkov" and his supposed handlers in Moscow. Russia denied any interference in Ukraine by its troops outside Crimea.
Involvement in kidnapping and murder Ukrainian government claims Girkin was behind the 17 April 2014 kidnapping, torture and murder of a local Ukrainian politician
Volodymyr Rybak and a 19-year-old college student Rybak's abduction by a group of men in
Horlivka was recorded on camera. The SBU released portions of intercepted calls in which another Russian citizen, alleged
GRU officer and Girkin's subordinate
Igor Bezler orders Rybak to be "neutralized", and a subsequent conversation in which "Strelkov" is heard instructing
Ponomarev to dispose of Rybak's body, which is "lying here [in the basement of the separatist headquarters in Sloviansk] and beginning to smell." Ukrainian Interior Minister
Arsen Avakov described Girkin as "a monster and a killer". The incident helped prompt the government's "anti-terrorist" military offensive against the pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine. In May 2020 Girkin confessed in an interview with Ukrainian journalist
Dmitry Gordon that he ordered the killing of Popravko and another man: "Yes, these people were shot on my orders. No one ripped open their stomach. Do I regret that they were shot? No, they were enemies." Girkin also stated that the killing of Rybak was also to some extent under his responsibility.
Supreme Commander of the Donetsk People's Republic During the weekend of 26–27 April 2014, the political leader of the separatist-controlled
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Girkin's long-time friend, On 28 April, the EU sanctioned "Igor Strelkov" as a GRU staff member believed to be a coordinator of armed actions and a security assistant to Crimea's
Sergey Aksyonov. He was also sanctioned by the
United Kingdom on 29 April. On 29 April, Girkin appointed a new police chief for
Kramatorsk. On 12 May, "I. Strelkov" declared himself "the Supreme Commander of the DPR" and all of its "military units, security, police, customs, border guards, prosecutors, and other paramilitary structures". According to a report issued by the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "reportedly, on 26 May, by order of Strelkov, Dmytro Slavov ('commander of a company of the people's militia') and Mykola Lukyanov ('commander of a platoon of the militia of Donetsk People's Republic') were "executed" in Sloviansk, after they were "sentenced" for "looting, armed robbery, kidnapping and abandoning the battle field". The order, which was circulated widely and posted in the streets in Slovyansk, referred to a decree of the
Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR of 22 June 1941 as the basis for the execution." Sloviansk's separatist "people's mayor" and former boss of Girkin, Ponomarev, was himself detained on an order of Girkin on 10 June for "engaging in activities incompatible with the goals and tasks of the civil administration".
Retreat from Sloviansk to Donetsk On the night of 4–5 July 2014, during a large-scale offensive by the Ukrainian military, following the end of a 10-day ceasefire on 30 June, Girkin led the Sloviansk People's Militia to an orderly retreat out of Ukrainian encirclement and made it to Donetsk, which they started fortifying on 7 July. Sloviansk was then captured by Ukrainian forces, thus ending the separatist occupation of the city which had started on 6 April. According to Girkin, 80–90 percent of his men had escaped from Sloviansk. The ultimately successful withdrawal of a considerable force of separatists from the besieged Sloviansk to the large industrial center of Donetsk caused some backlash in Ukraine against the army leadership. General
Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, then the commander of the besieging army who was criticized for having allowed Girkin's columns to move out of the city unopposed (and as of 2023 the Deputy Chief of the
General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces), said in 2020 that Girkin's successful escape had longtime consequences for the war, unfavorable for Ukraine: The feeling of annoyance that if they [the separatists] had been done away with in Sloviansk, then, perhaps, events would have developed completely differently, for example, in Donetsk. Because now we know that everything that happened in Donetsk received a completely new impetus after the arrival of a group of militants there together with Girkin. There was a rather unique chance to complete the
anti-terrorist operation then [in Sloviansk] once and for all. That chance was lost. General Serhiy Krivonos, Deputy Secretary of the
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in 2020 that the Ukrainian Army was aware of the movement of Girkin's columns out of Sloviansk but did not attack the columms: Having some information from our sources from Sloviansk and
Kramatorsk, we understood that they [the separatists] would come out. This understanding was clearly formed between July 2 and 3. And already on the 4th it was clear that they would leave that night from 4 to 5 July. We actively conducted reconnaissance and gave coordinates directly on the night movement of the column, and on the daytime location of the enemy in Kramatorsk, and then on the exit of Girkin's columns from Kramatorsk. These coordinates were given. There was no implementation of [an attack on] these coordinates. On 11 July spokesman for the
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andriy Lysenko claimed Ukrainian security forces had not destroyed the retreating military column because they had received information that the separatists were using
human shields. Shortly before the withdrawal, a video was posted on
YouTube in which Girkin desperately pleaded for military aid from Russia for "
Novorossiya" ("New Russia", an historical name for South-East Ukraine with particular popularity amongst separatists) and said Sloviansk "will fall earlier than the rest". Other rebel leaders denied Girkin's assessment that the people's militia were on the verge of collapse, implying that his seemingly desperate message was a deliberate act of
maskirovka. One of them, the self-proclaimed "people's governor" of Donetsk
Pavel Gubarev, compared Girkin to the 19th century Russian general
Mikhail Kutuzov, claiming that both "Strelkov" and Kutuzov would "depart only before a decisive, victorious battle". Others compared Girkin's orderly withdrawal from Sloviansk which allowed the separatists to strengthen their presence in Donetsk to
Voroshilov's and the
Fifth Red Army's fighting retreat from
Luhansk in spring 1918 (during the
Russian Civil War), which allowed the army to escape
German encirclement and prepare the successful
defense of Tsaritsyn. His retreat was strongly criticized by the Russian nationalist
Sergey Kurginyan. Kurginyan believes that surrendering Sloviansk is a war crime, and Girkin should be responsible for that. of Igor "Strelkov" On 10 July 2014, news outlet
Mashable reported finding execution orders three days earlier for Slavov and Lukyanov in Girkin's abandoned Sloviansk headquarters. The orders were signed "Strelkov" with the name Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich printed underneath. Also sentenced to death was Alexei Pichko, a civilian who was caught stealing two shirts and a pair of pants from an abandoned house of his neighbour. According to an unconfirmed story, his body "had been dumped on the front lines" after he was executed. On 24 July, Ukrainian authorities exhumed several corpses from a mass grave site on the grounds of a children's hospital near the Jewish cemetery in Slovyansk, which might contain as many as 20 bodies of those executed by order of Girkin. Among the identified victims were four
Ukrainian Protestants who the police and locals said had been kidnapped on 8 June, after attending a service at their church. They were falsely accused of helping the Ukrainian Army, robbed for their cars, and shot the following day.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Multiple sources cited a post on the
VKontakte social networking service that was made by an account under Girkin's name which acknowledged shooting down an aircraft at approximately the same time that the civilian airliner
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was reported to have crashed in eastern Ukraine in the same area near the Russian border on 17 July 2014. The post specifically referenced how warnings were issued for planes not to fly in their airspace and the downing of a Ukrainian military
Antonov An-26 transport plane which the Ukraine Crisis Media Center suggested was a case of misidentification with the MH17. Most of the 298 victims in the plane's crash came from the Netherlands. On 19 July the country's biggest newspaper
De Telegraaf included Girkin's photo in the front page collage of pro-Russian rebel leaders under the one-word headline "Murderers" ("Moordenaars"). Russian opposition lawyer and politician
Mark Feygin posted a purported order by Girkin where he instructs all his men and commanders who "have in their possession personal effects from this plane" to deliver the found items to his HQ so "the valuables (watches, earrings, pendants, and other jewelry and items from valuable metals)" would be transferred to "the Defense Fund of the DPR." Girkin was the author of an alternative version of the incident, wherein "no living people were aboard the plane as it flew on
autopilot from
Amsterdam, where it had been loaded with "rotting corpses"." This lie was then "not only aired on all state-controlled media outlets, but was the subject of serious discussion." At his press-conference on 28 July 2014, Girkin denied his connection to the downed plane and announced that his militants were killing "black-skinned" mercenaries.
Charges and trial in absentia In July 2015 a writ was filed in an American court by families of 18 victims formally accusing Girkin of "orchestrating the shootdown". The writ claimed damages of US$900 million and was brought under the
Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. On 19 June 2019, the Dutch-led
Joint Investigation Team (JIT), investigating the shooting down of MH17, officially announced a criminal case against Girkin and three other men. The court proceedings were scheduled to start on 9 March 2020 before the District Court of
The Hague, at the The JIT said it would ask Russia to extradite the suspects who are currently on Russian soil, saying: "The criminal trial will take place even if the suspects choose not to appear in court." Interfax news agency quoted Girkin as saying: "I do not give any comments. The only thing I can say is the rebels did not shoot down the Boeing." On 17 November 2022, following a
trial in absentia in the Netherlands, Girkin, along with another Russian and a Ukrainian, was found guilty of murdering all 298 people on board flight MH17 by participating in shooting it down. The Dutch court also ruled that Russia was in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine at the time. Following the verdict, Girkin told Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor for the
British Broadcasting Corporation, that "I do not recognise the authority of the Dutch court on this matter. I am a military man and I am not going to accept that a civilian court in a foreign country has the authority to convict a person who took part in someone else's civil war". While Girkin started the campaign, others took the plan to fruition after his dismissal in mid-August, and brought it to a tangible victory over the Ukrainian Army (a victory that, in turn, led to the
Minsk I and
Minsk II accords). These rebel commanders included
Alexander Zakharchenko and
Alexander Khodakovsky, as well as Girkin's deputies, such as
Arsen Pavlov ("Motorola") and
Mikhail Tolstykh ("Givi"). Later, Ukraine's
Security Service (SBU) claimed that the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, General
Valery Gerasimov, was in personal command of the Ilovaisk operation.
Dismissal as Donetsk People's Republic minister According to ITAR-TASS news agency on Wednesday, 13 August 2014, Girkin was seriously wounded the previous day in fierce fighting in the pro-Russian rebel held territories of Eastern Ukraine, and was described to be in "grave" condition. DNS representative Sergei Kavtaradze refuted this news shortly after, saying Girkin is "alive and well". On 14 August the leadership of the DNR announced that Girkin was dismissed from his position of defense minister "on his own request" as he was assigned "some other tasks". On 16 August the Russian TV-Zvezda claimed that Girkin was "on vacation". It claimed that he was appointed as a military chief of the combined forces of Luhansk and Donetsk (he had been in command of Donetsk forces only) and after he returns he will be put to a task of creating an unified command over the forces of the Federal State of Novorossiya. According to
Stanislav Belkovskiy, the main reason for the removal of Girkin from the "defense minister" position was the amount of attention caused by the downing of
MH17 and the negative impact on Russia's actions in Ukraine that it caused. On 22 August a former rebel Anton Raevsky ("Nemetz") said in an interview in
Rostov-on-Don that Girkin and his supporters are being cleansed from the DNR by the FSB, because of this insufficient compliance with Kremlin's policy on the republic. According to the
Nemtsov Report, Girkin later acknowledged that he resigned from his official position in the DNR due to pressure from
the Kremlin. In November 2014 in an interview for "Moscow Speaking" radio, Girkin said that "the existence of Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in their current form, with the low-profile but still bloody war, is definitely convenient for USA in the first place, and only for them, because they are the ulcer that divides Russia and Ukraine". Later in November in an interview for
Zavtra newspaper Girkin stated that the war in Donbas was launched by his detachment despite both Ukrainian government and local combatants having avoided an armed confrontation before. Also he recognized himself responsible for the actual situation in Donetsk and other cities of the region. ==Civilian life in Russia (2014–2022)==