Hirkin Ihor Vsevolodovych

According to his own claims, Igor was born in Soviet Moscow, where he studied at the National Historical and Archival Institute (now known as the Russian State University of the Humanities). From 1993 to 1994, he served in the Russian Armed Forces and chose to extend his service under contract.

It was at this point that he purportedly began his career as a mercenary. Igor has devoted significant time and effort to the glorification of his own life, and it can be difficult to separate myths and hyperbole from the truth as a result. However, the numerous interviews he has given and texts he has written serve as a form of testimony against him.

In an interview with Russian propagandist Aleksandr Prokhanov, he claimed that he served in five wars over the course of his life: Transnistria, two Chechen campaigns, the Bosnian war and the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, he later mentioned a trip to Romania "during the Kosovo War" in debates with Aleksey Navalny, as well as in a separate interview with "Moscow Komsomol".

In 1992, Igor traveled to Transnistria as a volunteer to fight in the Black Sea Cossack Army alongside Aleksandr Mukharev and Andrey Nimenko.

The trio also fought in the Bosnian war. Their attachment was later detailed by Girkin in his 1999 memoirs, "The Bosnian Diary of Igor G." and printed in "Spetsnaz Rossii” (The Special Forces of Russia), a specialized publication for the International Association of Veterans of the Russian "Alpha" Unit. In Bosnia, Girkin fought as part of the 2nd Russian Volunteer Unit (RVU) that was attached to the Podrinje Brigade of the Serbian Republican Army. The 2nd RVU worked in close tandem with the 3rd RVU (often referred to as the Cossack Hundred), in which several of Girkin's associates also served. The same type of illegal armed groups would later appear in Russia's war against Ukraine. In particular, Viktor Zaplatin, a former recruiter from the 3rd RVU, would later be introduced as the Deputy Head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) State Border Guard Service, as well as the Head of the Balkan delegation to the Donbas Volunteer Union.

In 1998, Girkin's first publications appeared in the newspaper "Zavtra” (Tomorrow), a paper whose head editor, Aleksandr Prokhanov, is well-known for his chauvinistic and neo-imperial views. At this time, Girkin also met Aleksandr Borodai, the future self-proclaimed "first prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR). Together, Girkin and Borodai prepared several written submissions for “Zavtra”.

Igor also began his career in the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) at this time, with conflicting sources claiming he joined in either 1996 or 1998. In either case, Girkin’s career with the special forces of the FSB began in Dagestan and would continue into Chechnya in 1999.

This Chechen period was also likely chronicled by Girkin in the Russian publication "Novaya Gazeta" (New Gazette) in a story entitled " Adventures of the Scumbags". The story, which details the violent disappearances of several people in the village of Mesker-Yurt, was later uncovered after Anonymous International successfully hacked Girkin's email accounts and leaked their findings online. In Girkin’s emails, which were also made public in 2015, Girkin was adamant that the story should never be published, as the people that he kidnapped at that time were mostly executed after interrogation and torture and without a trial of any kind.

Girkin was transferred to the reserve forces in 2013 with the rank of colonel. According to official documents, the reason for his transfer was hierarchical restructuring. However, there are several accounts that detail Girkin’s conflicts with his superiors at that time, most notably an interview with Mykhailo Yenotov and Kostyantyn Speranskyi, who openly said that he "flew out of the door".

The retired former military expert then worked as a security chief in the Marshall Capital investment group of the so-called "Orthodox Oligarch" Konstantin Malofeev, with whom he shared Russia-centric monarchical views, and participated in several of Malofeev’s projects for Anna-News.

At the beginning of Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2014, Girkin described himself as an "advisor" to Sergey Aksyonov, a man whose criminal past Girkin was fully aware of. After the Russian Federation unlawfully annexed Crimea, Girkin would give press conferences over the course of several years claiming responsibility for the coordination of the Russian-controlled security forces and mercenaries who "detained Ukrainian agents" on the peninsula.

Testimonies from the so-called Russian "self-defenders" confirm the following: Girkin issued orders on the basis of a need for so-called "self-defense", organized the unit's military training and selected the most qualified candidates for future military operations in the Donbas. Other participants in these "self-defense" efforts have corroborated that Girkin personally conducted negotiations with the commanders of Ukrainian military units regarding the eventual evacuation of personnel.

The Dutch-led MH-17 Joint Investigation Team (JIT) also intercepted a conversation between Girkin and Aksyonov that provides evidence to the claim that Girkin submitted requests directly to Aksyonov for military support in the Donbas.

On the night of April 11, 2014, Girkin traveled to the Donetsk region of Ukraine with logistical support from Aksyonov. As Girkin himself would later claim, he was fully aware of his destination and had made a conscious, rationally considered decision to travel there.

Kateryna Gubareva, the wife of criminal and leader of "Free Donbas" movement Pavlo Gubarev, was responsible for escorting Girkin to his destination of Sloviansk. According to the words of Gubareva, which would later be recorded in her husband's book "The Torch of Novorossiya", the initial plan was for Girkin and his contingent of approximately fifty people to travel to Shakhtarsk and establish a headquarters there.

Girkin's actions and methods during the invasion of the Donetsk region of Ukraine reflect those of a classically trained special agent. For example, those he employed brought several hundred sets of uniforms in addition to weapons in order to establish an illegal armed group upon arrival. Locals who were once from the criminal or more modest reaches of society then formed the local backbone of the future occupation government, presenting themselves as "the people's militia" and becoming instant legends for Russian propaganda. Aleksandr Borodai, the so-called "Prime Minister" of the self-proclaimed DPR, appointed his comrade Girkin to the post of Minister of Defense on May 16, 2014, making Girkin the de facto commander of all illegal armed formations in the occupied territory of Ukraine's Donetsk region.

In Sloviansk, Girkin established brutal military field tribunals. Through his desire to execute innocent people, Igor purportedly cited a Decree of the long-defunct Presidium of the USSR, which dated back as far as June 22, 1941. He later confirmed in an interview with Dmytro Gordon that pro-Euromaidan activists Yurii Dyakovskyi and Yuriy Poprovka were put to death by firing squad on his orders. In addition to these two activists, four others were executed on his orders - a local resident and three "fighters from his unit". Girkin also openly admitted his responsibility for the death of Volodymyr Rybak, a member of the Horliv city council. Several people in civilian clothes that Igor considered to be saboteurs were also executed.

On July 5, 2014, Girkin departed from Sloviansk for Donetsk. On the day that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, a post was published on a social media page managed by Girkin, ("Notes from Igor Ivanovych Strelkov") which published frequent "official announcements" regarding the illegal armed groups that operated in Ukraine’s occupied territories. The post detailed the alleged downing of an AN-26 aircraft on July 17, 2014 before it was subsequently deleted. Fortunately, such posts and messages are often recoverable, as visual copies and records are frequently saved by other users.

Girkin’s deputy, Serhiy Dubinsky, reported to Girkin that "a sushka (a Flanker-series combat aircraft) shot down the Boeing, and we shot down the sushka". Their version of events was based on the falsehood that the Boeing had been shot down by a Ukrainian military aircraft, which in turn had been shot down by the "local militia". According to intercepted negotiations between Russia-backed militants Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov, Girkin did not believe the version of events offered by his subordinates whatsoever, particularly the fact that the "local militia" had shot down a military aircraft and not a civilian one.

In his interview with Dmytro Gordon, Girkin left all questions regarding Flight MH-17 unanswered and repeatedly fell back on a single assertion: "Our militia didn’t shoot down that Boeing." While speaking to "The Times", Girkin once again failed to admit responsibility for the disaster, saying, that he "feels a certain moral responsibility for the death of the passengers of flight MH-17" as the commander of the militia before adding that his statements "did not constitute an admission of guilt".

Girkin's stay in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region was relatively short. As early as August 2015, he left his post as Defense Minister, stating in September that he had no intention of returning to the Donbas. Girkin then personally blamed Vladislav Surkov, assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, for this decision. Around this time, another open conflict began, this time with Girkin’s former friend Aleksandr Borodai.

After returning to Moscow, Girkin tried to formalize his endeavors through various political projects. In 2015, he served as one of the founders of the January 25th Committee, with representatives of Eduard Limonov's former National Bolshevik Party and other Russian nationalists also sitting in on the committee. The organization later transformed into the All-Russian National Movement.

Throughout it all, Girkin did not disappear from the media spotlight. He actively developed his blogs on social networks and commented on a range of agendas relating to the war in eastern Ukraine. He constantly criticized the activities of the Russian GRU (the Russian Federation’s Main Intelligence Directorate), the administration of the Russian president, and Vladislav Surkov personally, calling them enemies of the Russian state and asserting that their work in Ukraine was not sufficiently intensive or well thought-out.

A long-time admirer of military reenactments, Girkin would later call for a general mobilization in the war against Ukraine in 2022, as well as for the establishment of a "militia in the Kursk and Belgorod regions". Igor also continued his career as a "Russian oppositionist", openly condemning the actions of the current military command and Russian Ministry of Defense for their "negligence in the invasion of Ukraine". In 2014, Girkin was added to US and EU sanctions lists. In May 2014, the State Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine announced that criminal proceedings had been opened against Girkin and that he had been charged with creating a terrorist organization, as well as committing acts of terrorism and several war crimes. Later in 2014, the Prosecutor’s Office added the unlawful imprisonment, torture and murder of Yuriy Popravka, Volodymyr Rybak and Yuriy Diakovs’kiy to Girkin’s list of charges. In 2019, the JIT investigating the downing of Flight MH-17 named Girkin among those suspected in the transportation and deployment of a “Buk” surface-to-air missile defense system in the occupied territory of Ukraine. The Hague District Court began hearings on the MH-17 case in 2020. In 2020, the Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General also notified Igor Girkin that he was suspected of violating the laws and customs of war. Girkin was declared a wanted man and his forced extradition was permitted by the court, which is set to issue a verdict on the MH-17 case on November 17, 2022.

In autumn 2022, it become known that the Russian terrorist has decided to renew his participation in the war against Ukraine. The Chief Directorate of Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine guarantees the payment of USD 100,000.00 for the handover of Ihor Hirkin to Ukrainian captivity.