The leader of the Oplot separatist organization, Ukrainian Yevhen Zhilin, was shot dead in a Moscow restaurant on Sept. 19. He was renowned for his pro-Russian position and opposition to the EuroMaidan movement.
An unidentified man entered the restaurant in the high-end Gorki-2 suburb of Moscow and shot two diners. Zhilin died at the scene, while his companion, Andriy Kozyrev, is reported to be in a coma in hospital. The killer wore a false moustache, sunglasses, and a hat, Interfax news agency reported.
“The main motive for Zhilin’s murder is thought to be his business activities, but personal feud is not excluded,” said Olga Vradiy, a representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, quoted by Interfax.
The Kharkiv-born Zhilin gained prominence in Ukraine in the end of 2013 as a violent opponent and critic of the EuroMaidan protests. He established Oplot in 2010 as an organization to oppose neo-Nazis.
During anti-government protests in Kyiv in 2014, members of Oplot blocked activists from the AutoMaidan protest group from entering Kharkiv. After former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine, Zhilin joined a pro-Russian separatist group in the Donbas.
Ukraine issued an arrest warrant for Zhilin in 2016, and he was put on the international wanted list.
In April 2014 a group of anti-EuroMaidan protesters, including Zhilin and his Oplot, attempted to seize the building of Kharkiv state administration and declare Kharkiv People’s Republic like it happened in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Zhilin was also one of the main suspects in an attempted assassination of Kharkiv’s mayor Hennady Kernes in 2006. He spent in detention almost two years and later was acquitted.
In addition, the adviser to the Internal Minister of Ukraine Anton Herashchenko told Channel 112 that Zhilin’s wounded companion Kozyrev was wanted for a murder of a Kharkiv journalist Vasyl Klimentyev in the late 2000s. Kozyrev was hiding in Russia, according to Herashchenko.
