Former DPR 'minister' turns himself in to Ukrainian Security Service
Igor Ivakin, former “minister of coal industry” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has been brought into Kyiv-controlled territory in a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the SBU’s press service reported.
The man regularly used to attend sessions of the “DPR government” and actively participated in the formation of the ministry’s internal policy.
In particular, he regulated the activity of companies in the coal mining industry, as well as the distribution of energy resources to the parts of the Donetsk region temporarily not controlled by Ukraine.
After being dismissed from his position, the man started his own business in the DPR and tried to distance himself from working in the “government”, and considered returning to Kyiv-controlled territory.
He was recently brought into the peaceful regions of Ukraine in an SBU special operation.
Immediately thereafter, he gave official statements to the SBU, describing his involvement in the illicit “organs of government” of he DPR. The man also provided detailed evidence concerning Russia’s direct complicity in the process of occupying the Donetsk region.
Ivakin also confirmed that Russian civil servants, who are in the occupied Donetsk territories as “advisors”, are involved in schemes to embezzle Russian budget funds allocated to the maintenance of facilities in the pseudo-republic’s coal industry.
In a video published by the SBU, Ivakin said that he was appointed a “minister” in Alexander Borodai’s “government”. Borodai was the head of the DPR in 2014, and it was then that Igor Ivakin served as the “minister of coal industry”.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated according to section 1 article 258-3 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (creating a terrorist group), and the corresponding investigation is underway. The suspect’s possible complicity in crimes while in a leadership position in the DPR is also being investigated.