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Two years ago, Russian-backed rebels proclaimed the creation of the Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. Today, they are carrying out a purge of their own internal opposition figures.
As reported by The Washington Post, dozens of senior officials, army commanders and soldiers have been rounded up in the past few weeks. The list includes Gennady Tsypkalov, the paratrooper-turned-entrepreneur who swept to power as the prime minister of the breakaway state. Ousted a year ago, he was arrested in mid-September and accused of plotting a coup. Today he is dead.
The arrests followed a purported coup attempt against Luhansk’s authoritarian, Moscow-anointed leader, Igor Plotnitsky, who was a low-ranking regional official before he was ushered into power by the upheaval of war.
According to The Washington Post, analysts say this dark, bloody drama could lead to intensified clashes on the front line and may be tied to disputes over the control of lucrative smuggling channels between Russia and government-controlled Ukraine that cross rebel-held territory. It may even reflect bureaucratic infighting among the rebels’ masters in Moscow as the Kremlin elite plays out its private battles in the war-torn fields of the Igor Plotnitsky.
“These internal power battles happen over turf, over black-market revenue and over access to Russian fighters, and can lead to spikes in fighting on the contact line,” said Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in European studies at King’s College London. “In eastern Ukraine, military power equals political power. Plotnitsky is securing both. And whoever is in control is fundamentally dependent on patronage from Moscow.”
Alexander Zakharchenko, who heads the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has said he deployed his own troops to help put down the alleged uprising in neighbouring Luhansk. If this is true, an unprecedented move and symbol of increased cooperation between the two pseudo-states, long known for their tense relationship.
According to The Washington Post, conflicting reports have since emerged about the fate of LNR’s deputy defence minister, Vitaly Kiselev — better known by his nom de guerre, “Communist” — who was also jailed on charges of orchestrating the putsch. Some reports claimed he died during his interrogation. LNR authorities countered that by posting video footage of the detained commander, apparently unscathed.
Meanwhile, the purge shows little sign of ending soon.
As reported by Kyiv Post online on October 4, combined Russian-separatist forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in eastern Ukraine 32 times in the past 24 hours, including 16 times in the Mariupol sector, 10 times in the Donetsk sector and six times in the Luhansk sector.
The post Ukrainian rebel leaders carry out purge appeared first on New Europe.