Leonid Pasechnik

In 2014 he sided with pro-Russian militants, becoming on 9 October 2014 a minister of State Security for the self-proclaimed state Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).[4] As part of that role, he oversaw the "notorious" prisons and isolation cells in the LPR, in which, many media have reported, torture of people with anti-separatist views took place.[7]

On 21 November 2017, armed men in unmarked uniforms took up positions in the centre of Lugansk in what appeared to be a power struggle between the head of the republic Igor Plotnitsky and the supporters of LPR Interior Minister Igor Kornet, who was sacked the previous day.[8][9] Three days later, a government statement declared that Plotnitsky had resigned "for health reasons (due to) multiple war wounds (and) the effects of blast injuries, (which) took their toll."[10] It was also stated that Pasechnik had been named acting leader "until the next elections."[10] Russian media reported that Plotnitsky had fled the unrecognised republic on 23 November 2017 to Russia.[11] On 25 November the 38-member People's Council of the LPR unanimously approved the change in leadership.[12]

Pasechnik's position on the Minsk Agreements has been unclear. Upon taking office, he quickly declared his adherence to the Minsk Agreements, saying that "the republic will be consistently executing the obligations taken under these agreements."[13] On 30 March 2018 Pasechnik stated "Our (LPR) experience can help all regions of Ukraine eventually gain freedom and independence, and then we can together declare a new Ukraine in which representatives of different nationalities and cultures will freely live."[14] While meeting people living in territory controlled by LPR in the summer of 2019, Pasechnik stated: "It does not mean, that we will return back into Ukraine. This is the only way to stop this madness, this war. You should understand that we, as a sovereign state will be a state within the state – that will be our special status".[15]

He was sanctioned by the UK government in 2018 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.[16]

On 6 December 2021, Pasechnik became a member of the Russian ruling party United Russia.[17] United Russia chairman Dmitry Medvedev personally handed him his party ticket during the party's annual congress in Moscow.[17]

Pasechnik (right) meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2023

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, citing Ukraine's failure to implement the Minsk Agreements by not granting regions of the Donbas the required special status. On 27 March 2022, Pasechnik said that the LPR may hold a referendum to join Russia in the near future.[18][19] The authorities of the Luhansk People's Republic eventually scheduled a "referendum" on the republic's entry into Russia as a federal subject for 23–27 September.[20]

On 30 September 2022, together with Donetsk People's Republic Head Denis Pushilin and pro-Russian occupation administration Heads Volodymyr Saldo of the Kherson region and Yevgeny Balitsky of the Zaporizhzhia region, attended in Moscow the ceremony in which President of Russia Vladimir Putin formally announced the annexation and incorporation of those regions into Russia.[21]