According to Ukrainian intelligence, the separatist commander in eastern Ukraine heard in an intercepted phone call saying that his men “shot down a plane” on Thursday was Igor Bezler.

The picture of Mr. Bezler used in the Ukrainian YouTube video on Thursday is a still image taken from a clip uploaded in April, when he was recorded during the rebel takeover of the town of Horlivka where he identified himself to police officers there as “a lieutenant colonel in the Russian Army.”

Photo

At that time, Mr. Bezler’s self-identification was widely seen as a clear indication that Russian officers were indeed leading the pro-Russia uprising in eastern Ukraine.

Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper in Moscow, then reported that the name Bezler was a nickname, based on the Russian word for “demon.”

In the article @SimonOstrovsky links to, there’s this picture of Igor Bezler.

//t.co/u8kJwSC2Yy

#GRU #Simon //t.co/5lLAGLdGcQ — Ystri Ya (@ystriya) 23 Apr 14

Within days of the video appearing online in April, the Kremlin-owned satellite news network Russia Today, or RT, broadcast a report that said the separatist was “an imposter” and “an ex-funeral services worker who was fired for theft and blackmail.”

Later that month, however, Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service, known as the SBU, said that it had “established the involvement of a Russian citizen, Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Main Intelligence Department Igor Bezler, in the murder of Horlivka City Council deputy Volodymyr Rybak.”