Vladimir Putin’s most senior female official in the occupied Kherson region has been dramatically detained in a £1million alleged sting.
Ekaterina Gubareva, 39, was reported missing today by her husband before confirmation that she had been held by Russian law enforcement.
Since June she has been the deputy head of the Russian “civil-military administration” in the annexed Kherson region but is now in detention.
Previously, the high-profile separatist official was the “foreign minister” of the Russian self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR].
Her confused fate may be a sign that Putin is losing control of his machine in occupied areas of Ukraine which the Kremlin still claims to hold.
Seen as an ultra loyalist, sanctioned by the EU, reports say she travelled to Moscow to seek to silence her accusers but was detained when she returned to occupied Ukraine.
While Russia has lost Kherson city, it still holds swathes of the Kherson region.
A source told the independent Russian news outlet Caution News her enemies “decided to close her down. She tried to negotiate. She even went to Moscow….in the end she was arrested.”
Military correspondent Semyon Pegov confirmed she had been detained over “economic crimes", believed to relate to the theft of state cash by an organised group.
He continued: "Among other things, Ekaterina was absent from the Kherson region during the [recent] planned evacuation of the civilian population."
Law enforcement was now “carrying out appropriate procedures”.
A computer scientist and artist, her husband Pavel Gubarev, 39, is also a prominent figure in separatist circles.
He headed the mobilisation department of the defence ministry in the DPR and was a member of the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity grouping.
In 2014 he was a leader of the self-proclaimed Putin-backing confederate state of Novorossiya in Ukraine.
The father-of-three said today: “Around 4.30pm yesterday, my wife Ekaterina Gubareva disappeared. She has not been in contact since that time.
“The last place where she was seen was the building of the government of the Kherson region in Genichesk.
“Attempts to call Vladimir Saldo - [head of the annexed region] - to find out her whereabouts have so far been unsuccessful.”
