Kremlin Agents: These Are the Leaders of the Ukrainian Separatist Regions Annexed by Russia

After referendums described by the West as fake, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to formally annex four Ukrainian separatist regions to his country.

The signing on October 5, 2022, included decrees appointing leaders of the four regions, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, who were named by Moscow and are considered to be trusted by Putin.

What confirms the subordination of the leaders of the four separatist regions to Putin is their joining the ruling United Russia party in Russia, which is the largest political party in the country, has branches in all regions of the state, and classifies itself as a conservative following Putin's approach.

The texts of the documents entered into the Kremlin and signed by Putin, despite UN warnings of violating international law, require those four regions to be accepted into the Russian Federation, provided that they also act in accordance with its constitution.

The leaders of the separatist regions are Volodymyr Saldo (Kherson), Yevgeny Balitsky (Zaporizhzhia), Denis Pushilin (Donetsk), and Leonid Pasechnik (Luhansk).

 

Leonid Pasechnik

Luhansk is located in the Russian-speaking Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and is 100% controlled by Russia. It was established as a separate republic from Ukraine on April 28, 2014, during the Donbas War at the time.

Pasechnik, commander of Luhansk, was born into a police family in 1970, where his father Ivan worked for 26 years in the mortuary in the U.S.S.R before his family moved in 1975 to the town of Magadan, where he worked in a gold mine, then he is married and has two sons.

Leonid graduated from the Donetsk Higher Military-Political School of Engineering Troops and Signal Corps, then worked in the State Security Department in Luhansk from 1993 to 2013 before being appointed head of the anti-smuggling unit in the district's main department in 2010.

He initially gained national prominence during a 2006 special operation when he thwarted an attempt to smuggle 7.24 million Russian rubles in cash (more than $84 million) across the Russian-Ukrainian border and was then awarded a medal for his professional integrity by former pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

On November 30, 2021, he obtained a party card from the United Russia party, and he also has his share in smuggling coal, fuel, and lubricants and maintaining contacts with the Ukrainian security forces.

According to the American Peacemaker website, Pasechnik was involved in a number of corruption schemes and participated in the protection of smuggling operations, and he is also considered one of those involved in the arms trade.

After the coup in Ukraine in February 2014, Pasechnik joined the people's militia formed in the Luhansk region, refusing to support the policy of the new authorities.

He has been the President of the Luhansk Republic since November 24, 2017, when he was initially appointed as its interim president after former leader Igor Plotnitsky traveled to Russia and resigned from there for health reasons.

On November 11, 2018, Pasechnik won the election of the President of the Republic and received 68.3% of the vote, and since then, he has spoken for Putin and has been waving Luhansk's secession from Ukraine.

Since February 24, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has represented an opportunity to increase the security man's share inside the corridors of the Kremlin.

During the war, Pasechnik remained on guard, often appearing in Russian uniform, and talking about battles in the region where he personally enjoyed the support of the powerful Russian Federal Security Service.

Pasechnik was awarded the Order of Friendship from South Ossetia in 2018, as well as the Order of the President of the Chechen Republic in 2022, in addition to the Medal of Courage and Valor in 2021 from the separatist Republic of Crimea.

Nevertheless, Pasechnik faces a popular election to determine the president of the separatist republic of Luhansk, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation after the decision to join it.

 

Denis Pushilin

Donetsk region is located in the Russian-speaking Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and, along with Luhansk, witnessed anti-government protests in Kyiv in 2014.

At that time, the separatists demanded the establishment of a special federal system before announcing in April 2014 the establishment of two people's republics.

The new Ukrainian authorities at the time, after the overthrow of the pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, did not accept the situation there and considered the Luhansk and Donetsk administrations as terrorist organizations.

Pushilin, the separatist leader of the Donetsk region, was born in 1981 in Donetsk and studied corporate economics at the College of Construction and Architecture in Donbas, and between 1999-2000 he served in the National Guard of Ukraine on the territory of Crimea, is married and has three daughters.

It was a paradigm shift in Pushilin's life when he worked with the founder of the largest financial pyramid (MMM) in Russia, Sergei Mavrodi, from 2011 to 2013.

This work led him to knock on the doors of politics after he ran in December 2013 by-elections to the unicameral parliament of Ukraine for the We Have a Goal party, which was also founded by Mavrodi.

In the summer of 2014, Pushilin was subjected to an assassination attempt near a Donetsk restaurant. Several shots were fired at his car from a passing car, and his assistant was killed at that time.

In September 2015, Pushilin became Speaker of Parliament in Donetsk.

From November 2014 to September 2018, he was the Plenipotentiary Representative of the region in the tripartite contact group on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine.

Since the end of 2017, he has also headed the Russian Center that participated in the integration of Donbas with Russia in humanitarian, social and cultural issues.

In September 2018, Pushilin became the Acting President of the Donetsk Republic.

The name of Pushilin, the youngest of the leaders of the four separatist regions, rose to prominence after the mysterious assassination of the then leader of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, and appeared to have gained the confidence of the Kremlin as the region's leader.

From then on, Pushilin declared his desire for the region to be part of a renewed Russian empire rather than being an independent country.

The relationship of Pushilin with the Kremlin has been proven by his frequent visits to Putin, especially since 2018, the press managed to publish a photo of him leaving the presidential administration of the Russian Federation.

While the inhabitants of the occupied territories of Donbas are almost begging for their very low salaries, Pushilin and his family enjoy high luxury.

A picture of Pushilin's 17-year-old daughter Ilona spread in September 2021 while she was vacationing in Dubai and enjoying the money stolen from the Donetsk budget, as the hotel in which she stayed costs $3,000 per night.

On January 14, 2021, Pushilin called for support for protest actions in Ukraine in order to fully organize the revolution of the Ukrainian people.

Pushilin has been under sanctions since April 2014, denied entry and assets frozen in the European Union, and is on the sanctions lists of the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

 

Volodymyr Saldo

Kherson is located in eastern Ukraine near Crimea and is the first major city to fall to Russian forces since the invasion began on February 24, 2022.

Kherson's coastal importance stems from the fact that it is located on the estuary of the Dnieper River, overlooking the Sea of Azov from the southeast and the Black Sea from the southwest.

Volodymyr Saldo, the separatist leader of Kherson, was born in 1956 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, studied industrial and civil engineering, is married and has a daughter.

He participated in the construction of the Kherson Airport, the regional tumor clinic, the Kherson Oil Refinery, the Kherson Cotton Factory, the Kherson Shipbuilding Factory, and a number of schools.

From 1981 to 1986, he served in the Mongolian People's Republic as part of a group of military advisors.

In 2001 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration of Housing, Community Affairs, Urban Economy, Construction, and Investments.

He served as a former mayor of Kherson from 2002-2012 and was awarded Person of the Year in 2008 as part of the national program as the best mayor of Ukraine.

Saldo was the mayor of the Kherson city council, but after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and the temporary occupation of Kherson, he again began to cooperate with the Russian forces there after fleeing in 2014 after being accused of stealing money.

Ukrainian media described him as a traitor to his country. On April 29, 2022, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General informed Saldo of the suspicion of treason.

In March 2022, Saldo went to a rally in support of the Russian invasion and then participated in the creation of the so-called Committee for Keeping Peace and Order in Kherson, a body for cooperation with the Russian occupation there.

Saldo was appointed head of the Russian administration of the Kherson region at the end of April 2022, and on June 11 of the same year, he obtained a Russian passport.

On June 3, 2022, Saldo was added to the European Union's sanctions list due to cooperation with Russia.

Saldo was poisoned on August 5, 2022, and was taken to a hospital in occupied Crimea on a private plane; the Russian Defense Ministry said he was poisoned with toxic chemical weapons before recovering.

It is noteworthy that days before the poisoning incident, an explosive device was installed under his car, but an assassination attempt on him was thwarted.

 

Yevgeny Balitsky

Balitsky, leader of the separatist region of Zaporizhzhia, located in southern Ukraine on the banks of the Dnipro River, now about 72% of its area is under the occupation of Moscow, and the importance of the region stems from the presence of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in it, which was occupied by the Russians on March 4, 2022.

Balitsky was born in 1969 in the Ukrainian town of Melitopol, and in 1991 he graduated from the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School and spent four years serving in various aviation garrisons.

In 1996 he founded the first radio station in Melitopol called FM South Brewster, and since 1997 he headed the famous Melitopol brewery, and in 2007 he sold his stake in it.

From 1998-2012 he was a deputy in the Zaporizhzhia Council. In 2010 he joined the Party of Regions, and in 2012 he was elected a people's deputy to the unicameral parliament of Ukraine of the seventh session of the Zaporizhzhia region.

In 2013 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the second degree by the Ukrainian authorities, and in May 2015, he joined the parliamentary opposition bloc.

In December 2016, Balitsky presented to Parliament a bill on ensuring state support for measures to develop, promote and protect the Russian language and other languages of national minorities in Ukraine.

However, the moment he revealed his allegiance to Russia in 2017 was when the prosecutor's office in the Zaporizhzhia region opened a criminal case against him over the fact of separatist statements he made on the air on the 112 Ukraine TV channel, and he was summoned at that time as an agent of the Kremlin.

Since 2018, Balitsky has lived with his family on the territory of the occupied Crimea, but after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he became part of the military and civil administration of the Zaporizhzhia region, and on May 24, 2022, Balitsky was appointed head of the region.

On July 5, 2022, Balitsky announced that he was one of the first to hold a Russian passport in the region, and on September 26, 2022, he joined the ruling United Russia party.