Russia’s Federal Security Agency detains pro-Russian separatist leader who claims Ukraine

• Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claims that Russian security forces have arrested a pro-Russian separatist leader in the eastern region.
• The Ukrainian government said the Russian Federal Security Service had arrested Igor Alexandrovich Kornet.
• It added that the arrest was part of the “purification” of the leadership of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that Russian local security forces had arrested a pro-Russian separatist leader in Ukraine’s eastern region in the latest fallout from its failed invasion of the eastern European country.

Ukrainian intelligence He said in a statement That the Russian Federal Security Service arrested “Interior Minister Major General” Igor Alexandrovich Kornet of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. [LPR] In the pro-Moscow Donbass region of Ukraine, citing information obtained.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Kornet, 49, was being held in a pre-trial detention center in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Ukraine’s eastern border.

Ukrainian intelligence said the arrest was part of the “purge” of the LPR leadership which “is evidence of Moscow’s inability to pursue the objectives set by the current leaders of the ‘LPR’ in connection with a war on Ukraine.”

Insider was unable to independently verify Kornett’s detention.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the arrest was “met with a negative reaction” by “the power structure and political leadership of the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic, who see it as the beginning of a change in the organization of power within the quasi-state”. . “

The government agency added that Russia was trying to build up more forces in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government said that “the mobilization of personnel is aimed quickly at making up for the losses incurred by the sub-units of the 2nd Corps of the Russian Army of the occupying forces, and continuing the war actions against Ukraine.”

Russia recently She shifted the focus of her invasion of Ukraine To the eastern region after the Russian forces failed to control the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after weeks of continuous bombardment.

Another stage of this process [in eastern Ukraine] In an interview with India Today on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, “ According to the state-owned TASS news agency.

Translated by Nikita Angarsky and Alexander Vinogradov.