DPR Commander Givi killed in Donbass

PROMINENT DPR COMMANDER MIKHAIL ‘GIVI’ TOLSTYKH KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE

Mikhail ”Givi” Tolstykh

South Front,

8 February, 2017

The legendary commander of the Somali battalion of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Mikhail Tolstykh, popular with his nickname “Givi” has been killed in his office in Donetsk.

The first reports from Russian media have suggested that an explosive detonated and killed Givi. The DPR officials have labeled it as a “terrorist act” and that they’ll do everything possible to find the ones behind the assault. The news comes as the self-proclaimed republics of DPR and LPR have been witnessing the largest military activities since the signing of the Minsk-2 agreement.

Givi is yet another victim of such assault as earlier this week LPR’s colonel Oleg Anashtenko died in a similar case when his car was blown up.

In October 2016, another legendary commander, Aresen Pavlov “Motorola”, was killed in an explosion in his home. (more here and here)

Although it’s early to conclude anything, the fact that such a high rank officer of the DPR was killed in his office signals that there are internal problems in the break-away republic. Also, Givi’s death will demotivate the army of DPR, or at least the one of his battalion as we’ve seen with the “Ghost brigade” of LPR after the death of their commander Alexsey Mozgovoy.

Murder of Givi did not happen without a betrayal