Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an
investigation into the mysterious death of a minister in Russian-occupied
eastern Ukraine – just one of a series of gangland-style killings of top
separatist leaders that have occurred in the Donbas.
The story of Yevgeny Feinitsky’s death reflects the lawlessness and brutal power struggles that have plagued the occupied territories since armed groups backed by the Kremlin seized power from the local authorities in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Feinitsky, the former energy and fuel minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, was known for his ties to fugitive oligarch Sergey Kurchenko, the alleged front man for ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
Feinitsky is now on a long list of separatist leaders who have either been violently ousted or detained and exiled. They include Alexander Mozgovoi and Alexander Bednov — both murdered — and more recently Andrei Purgin was arrested along with his wife after being ousted from the post of “speaker” of a separatist “people’s council.”
A high-ranking minister, Feinitsky was detained for “espionage” in February and then “disappeared” in bizarre circumstances. Relatives only learned of his death months later when a death certificate came in the mail – from Russia.
Details of the case were announced by Ukrainian prosecutors in Donetsk Oblast on Nov. 10. According to a statement published by the regional prosecutor’s office, an investigation has been opened into Feinitsky’s death. The victim’s brother had appealed to Ukrainian prosecutors for help in investigating the “brutal killing” of the separatists’ former energy minister, the statement said, because “information about (the murder) was being swept under the rug,” in the occupied territories.
Feinitsky had worked as the self-proclaimed republic’s energy and fuel minister from late 2014 until the spring of 2015 – when he was detained by authorities there and accused of espionage, according to documents published by Ukrainian prosecutors.
Documents provided by Feinitsky’s brother show that Feinitsky was detained in February for his “pro-Ukrainian, pro-Bandera and nationalist” position. Feinitsky was also accused of passing on “state secrets,” though it is unclear to whom.
The document was sent to Feinitsky’s brother by separatist General Prosecutor Andriy Spivak in late August, after Feinitsky’s brother had sent a letter asking why Feinitsky had been arrested.
Spivak refused to reveal the whereabouts of the detained minister or the findings of the case against him in his letter of reply, saying the investigation was “secret.”
But it appears Spivak was hiding the most important detail: Feinitsky was already dead.
His relatives had earlier received a death certificate saying Feinitsky had died on May 17 in Donetsk, according to prosecutors.
Oddly, the death certificate was issued in Rostov, Russia. No cause of death was provided.
Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]
