Luhansk rebel leader survives assassination attempt

Igor Plotnytsky, the leader of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, suffered a heavy concussion after a bomb was detonated at an intersection in the city of Luhansk where his vehicle stopped in the morning of Aug. 6, news reports said. He released an audio statement the same evening announcing that nothing serious happened and that he is alive and healthy.

The Ukrainian government is not responsible for the attack on Plotnytsky, reported on Aug. 6 Oleksandr Motuzniak, an advisor to the Presidential Administration. The assassination attempt “is merely the latest confirmation that there’s a constant lack of calm” in the occupied territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, said Yuriy Tandit, an advisor to the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). “A fight for power and money streams is occurring and they are dividing these channels between each other.”

As a result of the assassination attempt, the Russian-backed forces in Luhansk are at a higher level of military preparedness and counter-reconnaissance measures have been taken, reported on Aug. 7 the Main Reconnaissance Administration of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. In his statement, Plotnytsky identified the Ukrainian government and American special forces as those possibly responsible.

Zenon Zawada: We are confident the Ukrainian government wasn’t involved because there are too many reckless factions within the occupied territories, none of which are worth the backing of Kyiv. Instead, the attack on Plotnytsky was either part of a power struggle between criminal gangs within the occupied territories, or an attempt by Russian overseers to rid themselves of him.

Another conclusion to draw from this event is that the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics would have dissolved long ago had they not been propped up by Moscow, considering all the infighting among the various factions. These artificial states will continue to be manipulated by Moscow for as long as they exist, which is why the Ukrainian public opposes the Normandy format proposal of holding elections and establishing self-governance there.