Ukraine Places $100k Bounty on Igor Girkin, Accused of Flight MH17 Attack

Ukrainian intelligence has called Igor Girkin, the Russian nationalist accused of shooting down commercial flight MH17, a terrorist and publicly set a bounty on him.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine's Facebook page set the bounty for Girkin at $100,000.

Girkin boasted he had "pulled the trigger of war" in Ukraine as the leader of the Kremlin's forces in Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, in the first months of the 2014 conflict, according to a Financial Times report.

In 2020, Girkin accepted "moral responsibility" for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that resulted in the deaths of 298 people. However, he refused to admit to downing the civilian jet.

"The main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine guarantees the payment of $100,000 for the transfer of Igor Girkin (Strelkov) to Ukrainian captivity," the Facebook post said (via Google Translate).

"It is known that one of the most famous Russian terrorists has decided to renew his participation in the war against our state.

"Igor Girkin (Strelkov) is a Russian terrorist, former so-called 'Minister of Defense of the DPR'. Currently, the SBU and the General Prosecutor's Office have violated against Girkin a number of cases for terrorist activity, torture, murder and violation of State sovereignty

"Also announced by the Netherlands and [internationally] wanted [for the] case of downing civilian Boeing 777 flight Mh17. No war criminal will escape punishment."

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Girkin, who often uses his alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, has been critical of Russia's tactics and failures.

In a post on his Telegram account on Sunday, he commented on the development in some of the recent developments of the conflict.

He began the post by observing that the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to launch artillery attacks at Belgorod, a region of Russia just over the border from the city of Kharkiv. This front in the conflict, he said, "has become more than full-fledged - almost at the level of Donetsk," according to a Google translation of his post.

"Instead of trying to push the enemy away from the border again (after the magnificent 'regrouping' carried out in September), our troops continue to conduct absolutely senseless offensive actions in all respects and accompanied by heavy losses in the direction of Bakhmut and west of Donetsk, to which the enemy, concentrating the main striking forces on other fronts, does not pay much attention," Girkin wrote.

The "regrouping" Girkin referred to was a successful counteroffensive launched in the Kharkiv region by Ukrainian forces in early September, which liberated several key areas that had previously been under Russian occupation. It marked one of the biggest successes yet for the defenders of Ukraine, and a significant blow to the Russian invasion effort.

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine and Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.