Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration in eastern Ukraine, resigned on Tuesday according to a Telegram post by Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksiy Honcharenko.
Haidai has been at the head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration since 2019.
Large portions of Luhansk have been under the control of Ukrainian separatists since 2014. The separatists sought to make Luhansk a breakaway state after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power during the Maidan Revolution. As a result of this contested control of Luhansk, the Ukrainian government has designated Luhansk a civil–military administration.
Ukrainian separatists of the self-styled Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) have engaged in low-level fighting with Ukrainian government forces since 2014. Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared LNR and another self-styled separatist state, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) independent of Ukraine.
In September, Russia held annexation referendums in a vote to incorporate Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. State Department Secretary Blinken and other western leaders dismissed these annexation votes as “sham” referendums.
Honcharenko said the reshuffling comes as Haidai is being considered for a role as the Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan.
In comments to a Ukrainian publication, Haidai did not directly confirm his resignation as the leader of the Luhansk Regional Military-Civil Administration or his nomination to serve as an ambassador to Kazakhstan, but said he is “ready to work wherever the president sends him.”
