Having come out in the open, Igor Strelkov-Girkin (‘Strelok’), the former Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, gives a press conference in Moscow.

According to him, Ukraine is preparing for an offensive operation, but at the same time it is mending its fences.“This defensive configuration is not stacked against Russia, but against Russia; aiming to defeat militia, the enemy is getting ready for a war against Russia, a full-scale war,” he declared.

Pro-Russian militants stand a chance to win the war only if Russia supports them, he stressed.

In accordance with his words, Igor Strelkov-Girkin is ready to go back to Donbas if ‘he receives an order’.

The separatist is not going to engage himself in political activities or take part in elections. “I don’t put my faith in any elections. Just look who was elected in Ukraine,” he said.

There have recently been rumours that Mr Strelkov hung himself in the Russian city of Rostov.

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In April, 2014 the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) identified Igor Strelkov as the leader of the paramilitary group that took control of the eastern city of Sloviansk. Strelkov is a commanding officer of a Russian military intelligence unit. According to the SBU, Mr Strelkov arrived in Crimea at the beginning of March and began directing Russian troops and special forces to occupy Ukrainian military outposts and government buildings, orchestrated the kidnappings of Ukrainian soldiers, activists, other Ukrainian and foreign citizens.

Igor Strelkov-Girkin may be implicared in downing a Malaysian Airlines Boeing on July, 17. Soon after the horrible accident he stated that ‘some people were dead before the crash as bodies were not fresh.’

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