You're reading: Former Ukrainian general defects to Russian-separatists in Donetsk

A former major general who served in Ukraine’s military during Viktor Yanukovych’s disgraced presidency has joined Russian-separatist forces in occupied Donetsk, according to a recorded news conference published by Vesti.ru media outlet on June 22.

Oleksandr Kolomiets said he moved his family from Kyiv
to Donetsk “in order to protect them,” UNIAN news agency reported.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released a statement confirming that
Kolomiets headed the i
nformation
analysis department of the Army General Staff until August 2012.

“He was dismissed because
of incompetence and numerous unauthorized trips to Moscow, Russia,” the Defense
Ministry said in a June 22 statement on its website. “In addition, at the
request of employees of military counterintelligence, Oleksandr Kolomiets was
denied access to state secrets.”

A Defense Ministry
spokesman told the Kyiv Post that after his dismissal, Kolomiets was a civilian
and his occupation was unknown. Kolomiets also had been the military commissar of
Donetsk Oblast for 19 years, the Defense Ministry added.

Last week the Security
Service of Ukraine announced that two of its foreign intelligence officers had
joined Russian-separatist forces in Luhansk Oblast. They were brothers Oleksiy
and Yuriy Miroshnichenko. Former state security head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko
told journalists last week that criminal proceedings were started for treason.