Yevgeny Skripnik (with a call sign "Prapor"), a friend and henchman of Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), stated that Strelkov was preparing a war plan with Ukraine even before 2014 when he served in the FSB.
Putin planned to go to war with Ukraine even before the 2014 Maidan
According to Yevgeny Skripnik, the "Novorossiya" project, which involved Russia's seizure of the territory of Ukraine, was created by the Russian special services even before the start of the Revolution of Dignity.
He also confirmed that Ihor Girkin, who served as the FSB officer at that time, was creating an agent network in Ukraine to implement this plan even before the overthrow of the fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych's regime.
In addition, Skripnik admitted that Strelkov-Ghirkin played a decisive role in igniting the war in eastern Ukraine. And if it were not for his intervention, hostilities would not have started there.
This statement refutes the false claims of the Kremlin chief, Vladimir Putin, that the reason for the attack on Ukraine was the so-called "coup d'état" on the Maidan in Kyiv.
However, the dictator decided to invade Ukraine even before these events.
What is happening now with Igor Girkin
Ihor Girkin (aka Strelkov) has been in pretrial detention since July 2023 in the case of public appeals to extremism.
The formal pretext for the case was two posts in Girkin's Telegram channel, which related to the occupied Crimea and payments to terrorists from the occupied part of the Donetsk region.
In November 2023, Girkin called on his associates to start a campaign to nominate him as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation.
A month ago, the Moscow City Court began considering Girkin's case.
Recently, he admitted that he is afraid to repeat the fate of late Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who allegedly died in a plane crash.
