Igor Bezler, the alleged GRU Lieutenant Colonel who was one of the leading figures in the armed takeover of government buildings in Donbas in the spring of 2014, has released a statement calling for the resignation of DNR “Prime Minister” Alexander Zakharchenko. Bezler is infamous for a variety of acts and statements, including the following:

• The takeover of the Horlivka police station, of which he assumed command after identifying himself as a Russian military officer.

• Staging a fake execution of Ukrainian POWs, ostensibly for the purpose of exerting psychological pressure on the Ukrainian armed forces.

• Allegedly coordinating with a GRU Colonel about the MH17, immediately before and after it was shot down. Bezler confirmed the authenticity of the recording, but claimed that it referred to another incident.

• Confessing to executing soldiers from Ukraine’s volunteer battalions.

Bezler became less prominent towards the end of 2014, although he did release a video in November of that year, claiming to be in Ukraine’s Poltava oblast. Since then, he has kept a relatively low profile.

On February 3rd, through the his wife, Angelika Shutenko’s Facebook account, Bezler released the following message:

Zakharchenko! For once in your life, act like a man. Announce you resignation. You don’t even have to tell the truth. Say that you have heart pain… or that old wounds have opened up. However much they try to mold a “leader and boss” out of you, you personally understand, that you – are a complete and utter zero. If, of course, the flattering speeches of the sycophants that surround you, have left anything inside your head, that would allow you to think productively. Don’t torment yourself and moreover, others. In your recently worthless life, make at least one act that resembles the act of a man. Simply go away, and take with you the whole ragtag bunch, that sitting at their lord’s table for two years, under the guise of building a government, only stole, and eradicated all that’s good, for which the people rose up in 2014! Take with you the various Kozakovs, “Tashkents,” and “Czars.” Stops being the leading clown of the “DNR.” For one day in your worthless life, be a man. I. Bezler

03.02.2017