Ukraine crowdfunds bounty for Russian wished over 2014 downing of flight MH17

Ukrainians have raised hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in on-line fundraisers to buy drones, weapons, Starlink web techniques and different gear to assist their military combat Vladimir Putin’s invading forces. Now they’ve added bounty to that record.

Crowdfunding began on Saturday for the seize of Igor Girkin, a outstanding Russian nationalist who led Kremlin-backed separatists throughout Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The entire raised had exceeded $150,000 by Sunday afternoon, in response to Serhiy Sternenko, the Ukrainian activist main the hassle.

Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who as soon as boasted he had “pulled the set off of battle” in Ukraine, served because the chief of the Kremlin’s forces in Slovyansk, jap Ukraine, within the first months of the 2014 battle. Going by the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov (which suggests “shooter”), he grew to become infamous for his brutality.

On his watch, Russian forces shot down Malaysia Airways flight MH17, killing all 298 crew and passengers. Girkin is one in all 4 defendants within the case of the shooting-down of the aircraft being tried in The Netherlands. The court docket is predicted to rule within the case subsequent month. In a 2020 interview with a Ukrainian journalist, Girkin mentioned he felt “oblique duty” for downing MH17.

Paperwork present in Girkin’s Slovyansk workplace after he fled revealed that he had ordered the executions by firing squad of no less than three folks in jap Ukraine following slapdash navy trials. Girkin later admitted to sentencing three extra males to loss of life and killing one in all them himself.

In August 2014, he was recalled to Moscow, the place he appeared on nationalist radio programmes and saved a comparatively low profile till reappearing after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February as an influential navy blogger. He has just lately emerged as a staunch critic of Moscow’s poor battlefield efficiency, advocating escalation.

“The battle in Ukraine will proceed till the whole defeat of Russia,” Girkin wrote to his greater than 700,000 Telegram followers in early September. “We’ve already misplaced, the remaining is only a matter of time.”

On the time of his submit, Ukrainian forces had begun their counteroffensive to reclaim territory within the nation’s south and east.

Early this month, after a number of days of not posting on Telegram, rumours started swirling about him returning to the battlefield in Ukraine. Then, on Saturday, his spouse Myroslava Reginska posted a photograph with him in navy uniform on his Telegram channel.

“To reply the query, the place is Igor Ivanovich,” she wrote, utilizing his patronymic, “All is effectively! Be in contact quickly.”

The submit triggered the Ukrainian effort to lift a bounty, with one Ukrainian activist voicing his hope it will be enticing sufficient for his personal Russian comrades to show him in.

Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast governor Serhiy Hayday and tennis participant Sergiy Stakhovsky have been amongst many who donated giant sums of cash.

“+$10,000 from me,” Hayday wrote on Twitter. “The legal should reply for his crimes.”

Hours later, Ukraine’s defence intelligence workplace, GUR, tweeted a wished poster that includes Girkin and his trademark pencil moustache.

“GUR ensures $100,000 for the captured Girkin,” it mentioned.