Mikhail Tolstykh, Givi, was born in Ilovaisk. When the hostilities began in Donbass in Spring of 2014 he took part in the battles for Slavyansk, Ilovaisk and the airport of Donetsk he was wounded and survived numerous assassination attempts. Irina Kuksenkova shares the memories.

"Listen! We're now being shelled by Grad. You've all seen and heard it. Here's the wreckage, mind your head and watch your step. Here it is. Crap, the thing's hot!". This video shows how the battalion commander takes the danger of war. Only when on the frontline did he put on his body armor and helmet. Givi reiterated: "Every bullet has its billet". But even being such a fatalist, the Somali commander did care about his safety.

However, he considered it as his duty under the Army regulation and the DPR command's orders. As befits, the battalion was safeguarded round-the-clock by the guard, video surveillance and even "hedgehog" anti-tank obstacles. But all these proved unable to prevent a monstrous sabotage. According to preliminary information the shell was fired from the thermobaric weapon Shmel installed in the street. This flamethrower had gained popularity during the war in Afghanistan. Experts describe the choice of weapon as "peculiar".



The projectile is so powerful that, being 93 caliber it has the same high-explosive effect as 152-millimeter artillery shells. Shmel burns everything that moves in an area up to 80 m² breaking walls and barriers. The projectile is a capsule filled with liquefied gas. Having hit the goal or an obstacle, the gas evaporates momentarily and the gas cloud explodes several instants later. If this weapon was chosen, and they knew the location... that is, if they had any intelligence information then the choice of the weapon is quite feasible. To act in such a way saboteurs needed up-to-date information on the layout of the building and the exact location of Givi.

Somali battalion commander was at his desk during the attack and only the inner circle members could have conveyed such data. Such an operation takes a long time to plan and is impossible without due assistance behind enemy lines. An officer of an elite special forces unit says only a very experienced professional can treat Shmel properly in such circumstances. How did they get there? How did they prepare the attack? It is clear that the attacker had mastered aimed fire and the distance, as far as I know, was long. Yes, it was a mature scout saboteur, a military man. Obviously, he was not alone. There must have been an covering team, without any doubt. The military say if a task is set it's only a matter of time and resources before it's completed. As we all know, even top officials can be murdered.

After the death of Motorola, Sparta battalion commander the military of DPR and LPR, following the Command order strengthened their individual security measures. But it didn't prevent the death of people's militia commander Oleg Anaschenko. His car was blasted in the centre of Lugansk. According to preliminary investigation, saboteurs attached an explosive to the bottom of the SUV. Prior to this, the same method had been used to kill Pavel Dremov Yevgeny Ishchenko, Alexei Mozgovoi. The series of murders of security officials in the unrecognized republics is largely a failure of DPR and LPR Counterintelligence Corps. It is a failure of those who were in charge of their leaders' safety. They really should organize cooperation with the agent, with field officers who would ensure the leaders' safety, and it's essential that the security service they would like to have must meet the adequate requirements to ensure the safety of these people.

Obviously, Givi's death is also a serious psychological blow to the soldiers especially, in such hard times when every day they wait for assaults by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.