Update (1751 EST): Russian state owned media reportedly showed video of Pushilin today showing him unwounded. He said: “Everything’s fine. The governor of St. Petersburg [Alexander Beglov] and I went to Mariupol, we signed a twinning agreement. Both Alexander Dmitriyevich [Belgov] and I are quite well,” Pushilin told RT. The video evidence and account from Pushilin himself sheds doubt on the claim he was wounded near Lyman.
The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Leader Denis Pushilin has been wounded along with 72 DPR and Russian troops, so says Anton Gerashchenko, the Adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister near Lyman, which last week fell to Russian Ground Forces. Pushilin was reportedly en-route to announce the new mayor appointed to the city of Lyman after Russian forces occupied the city four days ago.
DPR Telelgram pages have denied the report. This story is developing.
Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin is a politician from the Donetsk region who has served as Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic since 2018. Prior to his current office he served as Chairman of the Peoples Council, which is the legislative body for the DPR. Prior to the breakaway of Donetsk, Pushilin ran for the Ukrainian parliament, but lost in 2012 and 2013 elections with only .8% of the vote in the 94th district (Obukhiv). When the DPR broke away in May of 2014, he became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the DPR, surviving two assassination attempts in the early weeks of the Donbass War. He resigned from that post in July of 2014 and was eventually elevated back to the position when DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko was assassinated in September 2018. Prior to politics, Pushilin was a key leader in the Russian Ponzi Scheme called MMM.
