Alexander Khodakovsky

Alexander Sergeevich Khodakovsky (Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Ходако́вский, Олександр Сергійович Ходаковський Olexander Serhiyovich Khodakovsky) is the commander of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion formed in early May 2014 during the 2014 insurgency in Donbass. Khodakovsky is a former commander of the Alpha special unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). During the 2014 insurgency in Donbass, he left Ukrainian state service and became the leader of the pro-Russian "Patriotic Forces of Donbass" in Donetsk Oblast, and later (until July 16, 2014 when he was replaced by Vladimir Antyufeyev ) the Security Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
On July 23, 2014, the international news agency Reuters reported Khodakovsky had in an interview confirmed that pro-Russian rebels had obtained a Buk missile system from Russia, which they used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and then "probably" sent it back to Russia to remove proof of its presence.

This Reuters interview was quickly disputed by another rebel leader, Alexander Borodai. And Khodakovsky quickly denied having told Reuters that separatists possessed Buk missiles when the Malaysia airliner crashed in the region: "We were discussing theories but one simple phrase was cutting throughout like a red line that I do not have the information on militia possessing such kind of a weapon." Khodakovsky also said he had a video recording of the Reuters interview that could prove he did not confirm to the agency that the rebels possessed missile systems. Khodakovsky said he had told Reuters that he was not an expert and could not comment on the crash. Khodakovsky said he neither agreed with nor denied claims that rebels had shot down the plane. He only said that if Ukrainian authorities knew that the DPR allegedly possessed Buks, they should have banned civilian flights in the Donetsk airspace. Reuters said it stands by its story and produced an audio recording of part of the interview, in which a man claimed to be Khodakovsky confirms key comments made by Khodakovsky about the militia obtaining the Buk from Russia and using it to shoot down MH17.

In November 2014, he repeated his claim that the separatists had a Buk launcher at the time, but stated that the vehicle, under control of fighters from Luhansk, had still been on its way to Donetsk when MH17 crashed. It then retreated in order to avoid being placed under blame.

Accusations of spying
Well before the disputed BUK comments cited earlier in this article, the separatists started to field accusations that Khodakovsky was a traitor responsible for operations with the highest separatist losses, media disasters and theft of arms.

Possible capture
On 19 August 2014, reports began to emerge that Khodakovsky had been arrested by law enforcement agencies. It was later clarified by the Interior Ministry that it was Semyon Khodakovsky, a junior rebel commander, that had been detained.