Alexander Khodakovsky

On July 23, 2014, the international news agency Reuters reported Khodakovsky had in an interview confirmed that pro-Russian rebels had obtained a Buk missile system, which they used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and then "probably" sent it back to Russia to remove proof of its presence.[8][9]

This Reuters interview was quickly disputed by another rebel leader, Alexander Borodai.[10] And Khodakovsky quickly denied having told Reuters that separatists possessed Buk missiles when the Malaysia airliner crashed in the region: "We were discussing theories but one simple phrase was cutting throughout like a red line that I do not have the information on militia possessing such kind of a weapon." Khodakovsky said he had told Reuters that he was not an expert and could not comment on the crash. Khodakovsky said he neither agreed with nor denied claims that rebels had shot down the plane. He only said that if Ukrainian authorities knew that the DPR allegedly possessed Buks, they should have banned civilian flights in the Donetsk airspace.[11] Reuters said it stands by its story and produced an audio recording of part of the interview, in which a man who sounds like Khodakovsky confirms key comments made by Khodakovsky about the militia obtaining the Buk from Russia and using it to shoot down MH17.[12]

In November 2014, he repeated his claim that the separatists had a Buk launcher at the time, but stated that the vehicle, under control of fighters from Luhansk, had still been on its way to Donetsk when MH17 crashed. It then retreated in order to avoid being placed under blame.[13]

In December 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said that the only way Russia can win the war against Ukraine would be through the use of nuclear weapons.[14] Khodakovsky would again criticize Russian leadership of the war effort, stating that Russia can only hope to freeze the current front line, and cannot defeat Ukraine militarily, and that the opportunity for total victory in the war has long since passed. Khodakovsky concluded that Russia will likely have to come to a “truce” and that Russia may enter a phase “of neither peace nor war” with Ukraine. In this frozen conflict Khodakovsky speculates that Russia will be able to influence Ukraine more subtlety and to a greater extent then they can in a state of active war.[15]

During the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, Khodakovsky and the Vostok Brigade were in charge of defending the village of Urozhaine, on the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. The village was described by The New York Times as a "stronghold" and an important part of the Russian defensive network on the Velyka Novosilka axis.[16] Despite this, Russian media and Khodakovsky himself made it clear that the strategically important village would be solely defended by the Vostok Brigade against elite detachments from the Ukrainian Marine Corps. Fighting for the village began on 6 August, 2023, and Khodakovsky announced that the Vostok Brigade would be withdrawing from the village on 15 August, stating that their defensive position had become untenable.[17][18][19] Ukraine announced the liberation of the settlement on 16 August, and has been noted using artillery to shell retreating members of the Vostok Brigade resulting in high casualties among Khodakovsky's troops.[20][21][22][23]

Sanctioned by the UK government in 2014 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War.[24]