The commander of the Donetsk People's Republic's Somali battalion, Mikhail Tolstykh, famous as Givi, has been killed in a terrorist attack in Donetsk, the Ministry of Defense of the DPR has reported. Mikhail Tolstykh, better known by his nom de guerre Givi, died after a bomb exploded in his office in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk just after 6 a.m. local time on February 8, de facto separatist authorities and a source with ties to its military told RFE/RL by phone. After the coup d'etat in Ukraine in 2014, Tolstykh became one of the activists of the movement for self-determination for the country's eastern regions.When Ukrainian troops began their military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Givi was promoted to commander and fought in the battles of Slavyansk, Ilovaysk, as well the Donetsk Airport.In October 2016, Givi's close comrade-in-arms and militia commander Arsen Pavlov, a.k.a Motorola, was also killed in Donetsk as a result of a terrorist attack.Givi's assassination isin the context of the overall escalation of the situation in Donbass.
Donetsk People's Republic commander Mikhail Tolstykh, better known by his nom de guerre "Givi", is killed in a bomb blast in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast. DPR officials blame the Security Service of Ukraine for the attack.