Ah, he had a bone of contention with Strelkov, who accused him of “petty criminal behavior” and even incarcerated him for a while. Then Strelkov granted Ponomarev a chance to redeem himself and Ponomarev left Slaviansk as rank-and-file rebel together with the rest of the “team”. After that, his traces were lost, and he is now in oblivion and probably somewhere outside the Ukraine. I guess he is still alive but keeps a low profile for obvious reasons.