A Moscow-installed prosecutor ends up dead in occupied Luhansk under suspicious silence, sources say

A high-ranking Russian-appointed member of Luhansk occupation authorities has been found dead in occupied eastern Ukraine under unclear circumstances, according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation. Russian national Kirill Grekov, the so-called “Deputy Prosecutor General of the Luhansk People's Republic,” was reportedly discovered hanged in occupied Luhansk, as local authorities avoid commenting publicly on the case.

Russian prosecutor found hanged in occupied Luhansk

Petro Andriushchenko reported the discovery of Grekov’s body on 6 November. He stated that Grekov had been appointed by Moscow and was sent to the Russian-occupied territory to carry out key duties on behalf of Russian authorities. According to Andriushchenko, Grekov had tense relations with both local residents and so-called officials, often becoming entangled in conflicts that may have led to what he described as a “tragic end.”

Andriushchenko noted that Grekov’s death is being concealed from the public. Authorities of the so-called “LNR” have avoided making any statements about the incident, and no coverage has appeared in the regional occupation-controlled media. Obozrevatel confirmed that no information regarding Grekov’s death had been published by the “media” of the pseudo-republic. 

Grekov’s last appearance on the “LNR prosecutor's office” website was on 23 August 2025.

Grekov's predecessor died in explosion, alongside her chief

Grekov, a Russian policeman from Rostov, was appointed to the “LNR” in late 2022 directly to the position of so-called deputy prosecutor. He is listed in the Myrotvorets database, which gathers personal information on Russians and collaborators involved in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

His appointment came just months after an earlier deadly incident in the same office. In 2022, the so-called then “LNR Prosecutor General” Sergei Gorenko and his deputy Yekaterina Steglenko were killed when an explosive device detonated inside Gorenko’s office. It remains unclear whether their deaths were the result of internal purges aimed at replacing pro-Russian locals with Russians, or a targeted operation by Ukraine’s Security Service. At the time, the Office of the President of Ukraine referred to the deaths as a “conflict among criminals.”

The current so-called “LNR Prosecutor General” is Gleb Mikhailov, a Russian citizen from Dagestan.