A counter-intelligence unit with Ukraine’s SBU security service has carried out a special operation to transport a former top official of the Russian-backed militants occupying parts of Donetsk Oblast to government-controlled territory, the agency said on Jan. 29.

According to the SBU, the unnamed high-profile collaborator formerly served as the militants’ “coal industry minister” and was involved in the activities of the so-called “government of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the unrecognized, Russian-controlled statelet in occupied Donetsk Oblast, and also participated in policymaking at his “ministry.”