Armen Sarkisian, who was blown up today, February 3, in moscow, has been known since the time of the former fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych and was involved in a number of crimes.
A 44-year-old native of occupied Horlivka since 2014, Armen Sarkisian was an influential crime boss known as Armen "Horlivsky", close to former Party of Regions deputy Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Yura Yenakiyevsky).
According to open media sources, as early as 2009–2010, he allegedly received the title of "overseer" of Horlivka and took the position of vice president of the city's Boxing Federation. Horlivka is known as the main supplier of "titushky" (paid provocateurs) for the Anti-Maidan protests during the Revolution of Dignity.
Sarkisian’s "titushky" were reportedly involved in the murder of journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy and the brutal murder of Horlivka opposition deputy Volodymyr Rybak in 2014.
Since May 2014, Sarkisian has been internationally wanted for organizing murders in central Kyiv.
In 2018, Ukrainian law enforcement reported that Sarkisian had allegedly been detained in France, but later stated that it was the wrong person. Sarkisian himself denied the detention, claiming he was in russia.
He was also known as the shadow overseer of all business in occupied Horlivka. He owned his own cafés and organized the opening of boxing clubs.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, since February 24, he engaged in looting and seizing businesses in occupied areas of Ukraine.
According to SBU press center data, after the full-scale war began, Sarkisian, under FSB orders, created a new armed formation to fight against Ukraine—"ArBAT Special Forces Battalion." It was composed mainly of repeat offenders convicted of murder, robbery, and other serious crimes.
To recruit prisoners, Sarkisian was appointed the "overseer" of prisons in occupied Donbas.
According to SBU counterintelligence, "ArBAT" initially fought near Toretsk before being redeployed to the Kursk oblast. Sarkisian also used controlled firms to purchase thermal imagers, fuel, and construction materials for russian occupiers at the front.
He has been charged in absentia under several articles of the Ukrainian Criminal Code:
Part 7, Article 111-1 (voluntary participation in illegal armed or paramilitary formations or providing them assistance in combat operations against the AFU);
Part 3, Article 28, Part 1, Article 111-2 (complicity with the aggressor state, committed by an organized group of persons in collusion).
Russian social media have repeatedly reported that the "ArBAT" battalion is essentially an ethnic Armenian organized crime group.
Directly subordinate to Sarkisian was commander Gasparyan, call sign "Abrek". In November 2020, Abrek was sentenced in russia to 7 years and 3 months in a maximum-security penal colony for an armed robbery. However, he was released early after signing a military contract and became the first former prisoner to be awarded a medal for courage by putin.
As previously reported, Armen Sarkisian, was eliminated in moscow.