Separatist field commander ‘Givi’ assassinated in Donetsk
According to the Ministry of Defense of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, field commander and leader of the Somalia battalion, Mikhail Tolstykh, known by the call sign ‘Givi,’ was killed by an explosion in his office on Wednesday morning. There were reportedly two other people in his office at the time of explosion, both of whom were killed. Subsequently, reports emerged that RPO-A Shmel flamethrower was used in the killing.
The Ministry of Defense of the so-called DPR accused Ukraine of conducting the assassination.
“This is the continuation of war started by the Kyiv authorities against the people of the Donbas. The investigative team is on site now to conduct the investigation,” the statement of the Ministry reads.
The Prosecutor’s office of DPR stated that they allegedly managed to determine the possible perpetrators of the murder. The officials accused a Ukrainian subversive group of conducting the assassination.
“According to indirect evidence we can state that this tragedy was organized by the Ukrainian Special Services. We cannot rule out that the advisor to the Minister of the Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Zorjan Shkirjak, is directly involved in it,” the Deputy Defence Minister of the so-called DPR, Eduard Basurin, stated.
The press-secretary of Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated that the purpose of Givi’s assassination is to destabilize the situation in the Donbas.
“We hope that there is enough resistance [in the Donbas] and those who are behind such killings will not manage to bring the conflict to further escalation,” Peskov said.
Peskov denied Moscow’s involvement in the killing.