Ihor Plotnytskiy

Igor Venediktovich Plotnitsky (born 25 June 1964) is a former Ukrainian separatist leader who served as the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in eastern Ukraine, from 14 August 2014 to 24 November 2017. He was born 26 June 1964 either in Luhansk or in the town of Kelmentsi, Chernivtsi Oblast. Plotnitsky himself did not issue a public statement on 24 November 2017, but on that day a Luhansk People's Republic website claimed he had resigned as their president. On 25 November the 38-member People's Council of the self-proclaimed state unanimously approved Plotnitsky's resignation.

Biography Plotnitsky was born either in Luhansk or in the town of Kelmentsi to Venedikt and Nina Plotnitsky. In 1991 Plotnitsky retired from the Soviet Army as a major and moved to Luhansk.

In 2018 Plotnitsky was arrested and was in pre-trial detention in a Russian jail in St. Petersburg on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power.

Luhansk People's Republic With the start of 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine (in the Donbas region), Plotnitsky sided with the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). The Russian Foreign Ministry recognized the elections despite the Minsk Protocol which they signed. Despite winning the election, Plotnitsky later stated that he had been appointed to the post, but did not specify by whom. On 30 October 2014, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine issued a statement, that he and Aleksandr Popov are suspected of kidnapping Nadiya Savchenko. Since 10 November 2014 Plotnitsky has been wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine for his role in the LPR.

Plotnitsky challenged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to a duel (possibly to be broadcast live on TV) in an open letter published on 19 November 2014 in which he proposed "Whoever wins will dictate their terms to the opposing side". Plotinsky said that if he won the duel, he would begin by ending all military action in the country's turbulent east, and would then force "all legal, half-legal, paralegal and illegal armed groups" into exile. The next week Plotnitsky said that "If Ukraine remains like it is now, we will never be together", but that if the Ukrainian government would carry out the reforms laid out in the Minsk agreement "Time will tell whether we will be part of the future, new and renewed Ukraine."

On 18 January 2017 Plotnitsky (on his official website) declared "we will never return to Ukraine!" and that the LPR was "returning to its home – Russia, the Russian world".

On 22 November 2017 Russian media citing unofficial sources stated that he had been overthrown by allies of the recently fired interior minister and had fled to Russia, while other media from Russia contradicted such accounts and reported that he was still in Luhansk. On 24 November 2017 a separatist website stated that Plotnitsky had retired from the presidency citing poor health - "For health reasons. Multiple war wounds, the effects of blast injuries took their toll."

Reported ties to Russian intelligence On 18 July 2022, Bellingcat and The Insider reported that Plotnitsky, a Ukrainian citizen, had been flying inside Russia with a Russian internal passport under the name of "Igor Vladimirovich Plotnikov" (born 24 June 1964) on several occasions in September and November 2014 (including around the time when he signed the Minsk Agreements). They concluded that the passport was issued to him by Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, based on the passport number being part of a batch that includes fake passports of exposed GRU spies. In response to this allegation, Plotnitsky claimed he did not remember his travels from 2014 but that he always flew with a passport in his own name.

2016 assassination attempt

On 6 August 2016 Plotnitsky's car exploded, injuring its passengers including Plotnitsky. They also claimed Ukrainian "saboteurs" might be behind the "terrorist" attack – a claim denied by the Ukrainian authorities. ).