Givi Tolstykh Mikhail Sergeevich. The murder of Givi: how one of the DPR leaders died
DPR DPR
Mikhail Sergeevich Tolstykh(call sign Givi), genus. July 19, 1980, Ilovaisk, Donetsk region. - rebel commander with the rank of colonel in the DPR army (as of September 2016), who gained fame as a result of the battles for Ilovaisk. The unit he led was named the Somali battalion.
Biography
He took the nickname “Givi” while serving in the Ukrainian army, in honor of his grandfather, who fought during the Great Patriotic War. In his own words, he has Georgian roots from his great-grandfather. In 1998-2000 he served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at the Desna training center. Military specialty - tank commander. Then he worked as an industrial climber and was a diesel forklift driver at a rope factory.
Since May 2014, he took part in the battles for Slavyansk. In the summer of 2014, he took part in the battles for Ilovaisk. Since September 2014, he took part in the battles for Donetsk airport.
On October 19, 2014, he turned to the leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with a request to provide the People's Militia with cars for transporting the wounded (link unavailable since 04/04/2016 (1306 days)). On October 28, Zhirinovsky sent two Niva cars to the rebels.
On February 16, 2015, it was included in the sanctions list of the European Union.
On March 19, 2015, an assassination attempt was made on Givi. Mikhail was not injured, but his car was damaged.
Personal life
Not married. He considers his favorite hobbies to be football and boxing, which he used to do himself. Since the age of 13, he has been a fan of the Donetsk team Shakhtar. Favorite football player is Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo. Favorite movie is “The Transporter” with Jason Statham, and his favorite actor is Bruce Willis.
Awards
He was awarded various awards of the DPR, including: 2 St. George Crosses and the medal “For the Defense of Slavyansk”. On February 24, 2015 he was awarded the Order “Hero of the DPR”.
According to the Novorossiya Segodnya news agency, on March 2, 2015, Givi was awarded the medal “For the Defense of the Civilian Population of Donetsk” by the representative of the Slovak Embassy, Marian Farkas. Previously, Farkas, who is an entrepreneur, sent several humanitarian aid supplies to Donetsk, and claimed that preparations were being made to open the Slovak Embassy on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Peter Susko, denied this statement, saying that Slovakia does not recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR.
Battalion "Somalia"
A volunteer formation taking part in military operations in the east of Ukraine on the side of the DPR in the defense of Slavyansk, in the battles for Ilovaisk and in the protracted siege and further assault on Donetsk airport during heavy fighting in September-October 2014.
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An excerpt characterizing Tolstoy, Mikhail Sergeevich
- But for God's sake, be careful: you know how this can affect your maman.- I will, I will, but tell me. Won't you tell me? Well, I’ll go and tell you now.
Anna Mikhailovna told Natasha in short words the contents of the letter with the condition not to tell anyone.
“Honest, noble word,” Natasha said, crossing herself, “I won’t tell anyone,” and immediately ran to Sonya.
“Nikolenka... wounded... letter...” she said solemnly and joyfully.
- Nicolas! – Sonya just said, instantly turning pale.
Natasha, seeing the impression made on Sonya by the news of her brother’s wound, felt for the first time the whole sad side of this news.
She rushed to Sonya, hugged her and cried. – A little wounded, but promoted to officer; “He’s healthy now, he writes himself,” she said through tears.
“It’s clear that all of you women are crybabies,” said Petya, walking around the room with decisive big steps. “I am so very glad and, truly, very glad that my brother distinguished himself so much.” You are all nurses! you don't understand anything. – Natasha smiled through her tears.
-Have you not read the letter? – Sonya asked.
“I didn’t read it, but she said that everything was over, and that he was already an officer...
“Thank God,” said Sonya, crossing herself. “But maybe she deceived you.” Let's go to maman.
Petya walked silently around the room.
“If I were Nikolushka, I would kill even more of these French,” he said, “they are so vile!” I would beat them so much that they would make a bunch of them,” Petya continued.
- Shut up, Petya, what a fool you are!...
“I’m not a fool, but those who cry over trifles are fools,” said Petya.
– Do you remember him? – after a minute of silence Natasha suddenly asked. Sonya smiled: “Do I remember Nicolas?”
“No, Sonya, do you remember him so well that you remember him well, that you remember everything,” Natasha said with a diligent gesture, apparently wanting to attach the most serious meaning to her words. “And I remember Nikolenka, I remember,” she said. - I don’t remember Boris. I don't remember at all...
- How? Don't remember Boris? – Sonya asked in surprise.
“It’s not that I don’t remember, I know what he’s like, but I don’t remember it as well as Nikolenka.” Him, I close my eyes and remember, but Boris is not there (she closed her eyes), so, no - nothing!
“Ah, Natasha,” said Sonya, looking enthusiastically and seriously at her friend, as if she considered her unworthy to hear what she had to say, and as if she were saying this to someone else with whom one should not joke. “I once fell in love with your brother, and no matter what happens to him, to me, I will never stop loving him throughout my life.”
Natasha looked at Sonya in surprise and with curious eyes and was silent. She felt that what Sonya said was true, that there was such love as Sonya spoke about; but Natasha had never experienced anything like this. She believed it could be, but she didn't understand.
-Will you write to him? – she asked.
Sonya thought about it. The question of how to write to Nicolas and whether to write and how to write was a question that tormented her. Now that he was already an officer and a wounded hero, was it good of her to remind him of herself and, as it were, of the obligation that he had assumed in relation to her.
- Don't know; I think if he writes, I’ll write too,” she said, blushing.
“And you won’t be ashamed to write to him?”
Sonya smiled.
- No.
“And I’ll be ashamed to write to Boris, I won’t write.”
- Why are you ashamed? Yes, I don’t know. Embarrassing, embarrassing.
“And I know why she will be ashamed,” said Petya, offended by Natasha’s first remark, “because she was in love with this fat man with glasses (that’s how Petya called his namesake, the new Count Bezukhy); Now she’s in love with this singer (Petya was talking about the Italian, Natasha’s singing teacher): so she’s ashamed.
“Petya, you’re stupid,” Natasha said.
“No more stupid than you, mother,” said nine-year-old Petya, as if he were an old foreman.
The Countess was prepared by hints from Anna Mikhailovna during dinner. Having gone to her room, she, sitting on an armchair, did not take her eyes off the miniature portrait of her son embedded in the snuffbox, and tears welled up in her eyes. Anna Mikhailovna, with the letter, tiptoed up to the countess's room and stopped.
“Don’t come in,” she said to the old count who was following her, “later,” and closed the door behind her.
The Count put his ear to the lock and began to listen.
At first he heard the sounds of indifferent speeches, then one sound of Anna Mikhailovna's voice, making a long speech, then a cry, then silence, then again both voices spoke together with joyful intonations, and then steps, and Anna Mikhailovna opened the door for him. On Anna Mikhailovna’s face was the proud expression of an operator who had completed a difficult amputation and was introducing the audience so that they could appreciate his art.
“C”est fait! [The job is done!],” she said to the count, pointing with a solemn gesture at the countess, who was holding a snuffbox with a portrait in one hand, a letter in the other, and pressed her lips to one or the other.
Seeing the count, she stretched out her arms to him, hugged his bald head and through the bald head again looked at the letter and portrait and again, in order to press them to her lips, she slightly pushed the bald head away. Vera, Natasha, Sonya and Petya entered the room and the reading began. The letter briefly described the campaign and two battles in which Nikolushka participated, promotion to officer, and said that he kisses the hands of maman and papa, asking for their blessing, and kisses Vera, Natasha, Petya. In addition, he bows to Mr. Sheling, and Mr. Shos and the nanny, and, in addition, asks to kiss dear Sonya, whom he still loves and about whom he still remembers. Hearing this, Sonya blushed so that tears came to her eyes. And, unable to withstand the glances directed at her, she ran into the hall, ran up, spun around and, inflating her dress with a balloon, flushed and smiling, sat down on the floor. The Countess was crying.
-What are you crying about, maman? - Vera said. “We should rejoice at everything he writes, not cry.”
This was completely fair, but the count, the countess, and Natasha all looked at her reproachfully. “And who did she look like!” thought the Countess.
Nikolushka's letter was read hundreds of times, and those who were considered worthy of listening to it had to come to the countess, who would not let him out of her hands. Tutors, nannies, Mitenka, and some acquaintances came, and the countess re-read the letter every time with new pleasure and each time, from this letter, she discovered new virtues in her Nikolushka. How strange, extraordinary, and joyful it was for her that her son was the son who had barely noticeably moved with tiny limbs inside her 20 years ago, the son for whom she had quarreled with the pampered count, the son who had learned to say before: “ pear,” and then “woman,” that this son is now there, in a foreign land, in a foreign environment, a courageous warrior, alone, without help or guidance, doing some kind of manly work there. All the world's centuries-old experience, indicating that children imperceptibly from the cradle become husbands, did not exist for the countess. The maturation of her son in every season of manhood was as extraordinary for her as if there had never been millions of millions of people who matured in exactly the same way. Just as she couldn’t believe 20 years ago that that little creature that lived somewhere under her heart would scream and begin to suck her breast and start talking, so now she couldn’t believe that this same creature could be that strong, a brave man, an example of the sons and men he was now, judging by this letter.
Marina Chernovolova, who lives in Ilovaisk, did not immediately believe in her brother’s death, Life.ru reports. Information about the death of the battalion commander has repeatedly appeared in the Ukrainian media, but Givi has always independently debunked these rumors. However, this time the girl received official notification from the DPR authorities about the death of Mikhail Tolstykh.
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Marina stated that everyone in the family was afraid of his possible death, except for himself. Moreover, Givi was preparing his mother for the fact that he could be killed at any moment.
“Misha always told his mother: “Mommy, be prepared for anything, this is war!” But no mother, of course, can prepare herself for the death of her son. Especially such a death... They blew him up while he was sleepy, and there was no heroism in that no,” the girl said.
Let us note that Marina’s husband also served in the “Somalia” battalion. He joined this unit to stand on a par with Mikhail Tolstykh.
According to the girl, Givi is only three years older than her, but has always been an authority for her. She first saw her brother on TV in a report from one of the Russian TV channels during her stay in Rostov-on-Don. “If we had been told earlier that my mother’s son and my brother would be hated by the President of Ukraine himself, it would have been a shock for us,” Marina said. At the same time, she noted that the fame of a national hero did not in any way affect Mikhail’s character.
The DPR authorities promised the militiaman’s family that the “Somalia” detachment would not be disbanded and would continue to operate. “After Misha’s death, we will not surrender Donbass... The battalion will remain, and we will continue our work. And we will not give up a single centimeter of our land,” concluded the sister of the deceased.
Let us recall that the battalion commander of the Somali unit was killed in his office as a result of a terrorist attack carried out using a shot from a Shmel rocket-propelled infantry flamethrower (RPO). The farewell ceremony for Mikhail Tolstykh will take place in the Donbass Opera building. The funeral is scheduled for Friday, February 10.
Representatives of the DPR defense department reported that the terrorist attack that claimed the life of DPR Army Colonel Mikhail Tolstykh occurred at 06:12 Moscow time. The investigation team immediately went to the scene of the terrorist attack. The details of what happened are being established.
Mikhail Tolstykh was born on July 19, 1980 in Ilovaisk (Donetsk region). Since 2014, he fought on the side of the militia. He gained fame as a result of the battles for Ilovaisk.
In honor of his grandfather, who fought during the Great Patriotic War, he took the nickname “Givi” while still serving in the Ukrainian army. As Mikhail Tolstykh said, his grandfather had Georgian roots.
In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Givi served in 1998-2000 at the Desna training center in the 92nd regiment. Then he received a military specialty - tank commander. After military service, he worked as an industrial climber and as a diesel forklift driver at a rope factory.
In 2014, he took part in the battles for Slavyansk and Ilovaisk. He also took part in the battles for Donetsk airport. The unit he led was called the “Somalia” battalion. As the Novorossiya Segodnya news agency reported, on March 2, 2015, Givi was awarded the medal “For the Defense of the Civilian Population of Donetsk” by the representative of the Slovak Embassy, Marian Farkas.
In February 2015, it was included in the European Union sanctions list. Ukrainian authorities accuse him of committing serious criminal offenses. So, Kyiv accuses him of creating a terrorist organization, leadership and participation in it; in waging aggressive war; ill-treatment of prisoners of war; unlawful deprivation of liberty or kidnapping.
It should be noted that attempts on Givi’s life were prepared more than once. One of them occurred on March 19, 2015. He was not injured at the time, but his car was severely damaged.
On the morning of January 8, 2017, an attempt was made on Givi’s life in his office. As a result of the explosion, a fire broke out in the building. After the fire was extinguished, rescuers discovered the body of the killed commander of the Somalia detachment.
Mikhail Tolstykh was not married. Speaking to journalists, Givi noted that he loves football and boxing. He once played these sports. Givi called Shakhtar Donetsk his favorite team, and his favorite football player was the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mikhail Sergeevich Tolstykh, better known by his nickname Givi, gained his “popularity” largely thanks to the Russian media, which, tirelessly, reproduced on the screens the unshaven, and at first glance half-drunk, face of an ardent fighter against the “ukrofashists” for the bright ideas of “Novorossiya” ".
Who really is Givi-Tolstoy?
According to official information, Mikhail Tolstykh was born in 1980 in the city of Ilovaisk, Donetsk region.
In 1998-2000 he served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at the Desna training center, in the 92nd regiment. Military specialty - tank commander.
Then he worked as an industrial climber and was a diesel forklift driver at a rope factory.
Origin of the nickname
As for the nickname, he allegedly received it while still in the army, but not because of his Georgian origin, but for his external similarity with Caucasians. However, there is an opinion from Georgian resident Gia Beraya that Givi’s great-grandfather was Georgian, which is why the militant received such a nickname.
There is another version. Then it could well have happened that “Novorossiya” would not have recognized its “hero”, but a miracle happened: a local businessman named Arsen accepted Givi as a territory cleaner and assistant car washer at his car service center. Arsen (in the world - Arsen Targonsky), according to the recollections of the same refugees from Ilovaisk, was a kind man, which was not typical for people of his class in those days. Arsen arranged for Givi to live in a local hostel on the outskirts of the city and provided him with the most basic things in the form of primitive dishes and clothing. At the car wash, workers also treated Mikhail Tolstykh with contempt, burdening him with work such as collecting garbage or cleaning sewers. It was then that Mikhail received his nickname - “Khivi”. As residents of Ilovaisk recall, he was given a nickname at the car wash for his always dirty and sloppy appearance, which, in “harmony” with green overalls, resembled a Soviet prisoner of war of 1941-1942 (Reference: Khivi - the so-called volunteer assistants of the Wehrmacht, recruited (including forcibly mobilized) from the local population in the occupied territories of the USSR and Soviet prisoners of war).
Mikhail, apparently, liked his nickname. Maybe because he had never heard of who the “Hiwis” were. Therefore, when Russian aggression began in the Donbass, the newly minted fighter for the bright ideas of “Novorossiya” kept his old nickname as his call sign, only changing it slightly. Thus, from “Khivi” the now famous “Givi” came out.
Dark past
And here is what Donetsk bloggers and, in particular, blogger Elkham Abubakirov learned about the “legend of Novorossiya” and at the same time the “Russian TV star”.
In fact, there is no data on where exactly Mikhail Tolstoy was born, just as there is no documentary information about his parents.
According to the testimony of refugees from Ilovaisk, Givi’s father, after another imprisonment, came home to Ilovaisk and did not work anywhere, drank a lot and beat his wife with enviable consistency. It is also not known for certain what exactly Givi’s father died from, since this happened in Mikhail’s unconscious childhood. His mother allegedly also drank for a long time, then simply disappeared without a trace when the future terrorist was barely 18 years old. But this information is denied by the separatists and Givi himself.
As a child, Mikhail was withdrawn and unsociable. He was not accepted into children's groups because of his slovenly appearance and the cruelty bordering on sadism that he unleashed on stray animals. At school, for these reasons, Misha Tolstykh was constantly humiliated by high school students, had no friends, and since he did not want to study, he spent most of his time on the outskirts of the city in abandoned houses and buildings that were replete with drug dens. There, Givi tried drugs for the first time. The future “lieutenant colonel” began to use both “weed” and intravenously. By the way, Givi still has a love for marijuana.
According to the blogger, the legend of the Russian media about Mikhail Tolstykh’s alleged service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also untrue. He was not accepted into the army due to obvious speech defects at that time and problems in the field of psychiatry (at the medical examination at the military registration and enlistment office, Tolstykh did not pass a psychiatrist). It is unknown what mental illness or disorder caused this.
When he was “rejected,” Givi began drinking. During that period, he was often seen dead drunk, sometimes even falling asleep on the street in any weather.
Around 2008-2009, another significant event happened in the life of Mikhail Tolstykh. Once he was tasked with wiping the dust in the interior of the new car of the local semi-authority “Sani Ryzhego”.
"Sanya Red" (in the world - Alexander Rakhimov) was a stupid but cruel man. After serving his prison sentence for rape and returning to Ilovaisk, Rakhimov, having fairly developed fists and muscles, went into the service of local authorities. Having survived and collected capital, Sanya Ryzhiy opened a couple of shops and a nightclub-eatery in Dokuchaevsk.
And on that ill-fated day, Sanya Red was unusually angry and was looking for someone to take out his anger on. The victim identified itself quite quickly. Trying to clean the ashtray in the car, Tolstykh-Khivi scattered cigarette butts and ashes on the seat of Sanya Red’s expensive car. The reprisal did not take long to arrive: Khivi was immediately severely beaten.
The time will come, and Rakhimov’s disfigured corpse, torn to pieces by stray dogs, will be found in the steppe not far from Dokuchaevsk. He will first be kidnapped and then brutally killed by unknown militants along with his minor son.
In 2011, Mikhail was detained for stealing a bicycle while dead drunk (although, perhaps, this theft was simply “labelled”). He was placed in a temporary detention facility. However, he was soon released under another amnesty.
After that, he worked for some time as a loader in a store and as a cleaner in a car parking lot. Some media outlets disseminated information that Mikhail Tolstykh allegedly worked as a supermarket security guard and car valet.
And according to information from militant TV channel journalist Artem Rodari, citing an interview with Mikhail Tolstykh, Givi actually worked as a security guard at a supermarket. The separatist field commander states that, after returning from the army in 2000, he moved to the city of Kremenchug, Poltava region, where, in fact, he worked at a factory. However, due to his mother’s illness, he was subsequently forced to return to Ilovaisk. The last place of work of the field commander before the war was the Khartsyzsk rope plant "Silur", where he worked as a driver of a diesel loader.
And these are the answers to the questions of the Georgian journalist:
However, it is difficult to say how true this information is. Actually, we may learn the truth only after the end of the war and the liberation of Donbass.
"Career" in the Donbass conflict
According to his own statement, Givi always sympathized more with Russia, therefore, after the outbreak of unrest in eastern Ukraine, he took the side of the separatists and from May 2014 went to fight in Slavyansk, where he joined an illegal armed group of militants created by uniting a sabotage group led by Igor Girkin and local separatists.
He first showed himself as a militant commander in the summer of 2014 in the battles near Ilovaisk. There, a detachment under the command of Givi took a direct part in blocking Ukrainian troops trying to get out of the encirclement.
According to the militants, Mikhail Tolstykh is a “lieutenant colonel” of the so-called “armed forces of Novorossiya”, the commander of the so-called “first separate battalion-tactical group of Somalia.”
The separatist field commander Givi first met the current leader of the self-proclaimed "DPR" during a report on the situation in Ilovaisk to the "DPR Minister of Defense" Vladimir Kononov, known under the call sign "Tsar". This happened in August 2014 in the city of Shakhtersk. By that time militant leader A. Zakharchenko headed the separatist bandit Oplot, which then had about 70 militants under the leadership of field commander Givi.
During the meeting with the future head of the so-called. "DPR", organized by V. Kononov, Givi received a unit of artillery from him. Subsequently, Givi stated that the terrorists held the city of Ilovaisk in the amount of 170 militants and with one unit of the Nona artillery mount. The militant also stated that there was no Russian army in the Ilovaisk cauldron. And “Nona” proposed erecting a monument to the above-mentioned installation in Ilovaisk.
Since September 2014, together with Motorola, he has been leading militant attacks on Donetsk airport. Experts noted that terrorists most often chose frontal attacks as an attack tactic, which led to large losses among the attackers. The number of deaths in the Givi and Motorola detachments during the period of senseless attacks on the airport is incalculable.
On October 19, 2014, he turned to the leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with a request to provide the People's Militia with cars to transport the wounded. And on October 28, Zhirinovsky sent a batch of Niva cars to the rebels.
Mikhail Tolstykh is widely known on the Internet for his abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Ukrainian patriots. On the Internet you can find many video links confirming this information.
For example, forcing prisoners to eat chevrons. It was Givi who mocked the captured “cyborgs” led by Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Kuzminykh. Demonstrative abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Ilovaisk together with the “Kadyrovites”, etc.
On April 7, 2015, a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Assistant Chief of the General Staff Tatyana Rychkova, in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, stated that Mikhail Tolstykh, better known as Givi, commander of the Somalia battalion, demonstrably shot wounded Ukrainian soldiers at the Donetsk airport.
“I know that the separatists were simply finishing off our guys. The soldiers of the 25th brigade are not taken prisoner at all, they are killed immediately. Givi started this. He pointedly shot a soldier,” said Rychkova. “One of the Russian military men told ours about this, from those who still have honor know that prisoners are not killed. He said: “This idiot shot your boy for show.”
At the same time, the commander of the terrorist gang, Mikhail Tolstykh, is also quite cruel to the militants who are part of the Somali illegal armed group he heads. A terrorist could easily publicly beat his subordinates and throw them “in the basement.”
Assassination attempts
The Ukrainian military and partisans have repeatedly tried to destroy the terrorist commander, but the militant has so far escaped unscathed.
Thus, in March 2015, an attempt was made on Givi’s life, which the militant himself told the Russian propaganda TV channel LifeNews about. According to Givi, the attack took place on March 19, when he was leaving Makeyevka. At least 12 rounds of 5.45 mm caliber were fired into the car. The terrorist said that he managed to jump out of the car while it was moving:
“I managed to jump out of the car and it was already rolling forward on its own. We counted 12 hits on the car. They hit the rear doors, the glass, and hit the engine. I saw the car, took out a sawed-off shotgun given to Zakharchenko, opened fire, but they took off - and drove towards the bypass road."
In June 2015, information was disseminated that the terrorist was killed during military operations, but the militant brazenly called during a live broadcast of the 112 TV channel and denied this statement.
On April 7, 2016, Givi was wounded near the village of Verkhnetoretskoye, Donetsk region. The media write that the commander of "Somalia" "miraculously managed to escape death." As a result of the attack, the commander was wounded in the arm.
At the end of May 2015, information appeared that a group of terrorists led by Givi with weapons visited the Donetsk railway station with the aim of recruiting “volunteers” for gang formations and for digging trenches. However, the militants received fierce resistance from both women and men. At the same time, they boldly spoke to his face about the negative attitude towards the “liberators” and criticized the activities of the Russian occupiers. Most of the women said they were going to Kyiv. This wildly outraged Givi, who left the station with obscenities, without persuading anyone. At the same time, he wished for people with different views that they would die from a direct hit from a shell.
“Civilians show disrespect for people in uniform. Although, on the one hand, here we ourselves are to blame, “other militias,” as I call such people. Firstly, someone started doing something weird, and that’s it , everyone is like that. It’s a pity. And when the massacre begins, when the artillery shelling begins, everyone hopes that the “Rostov” battalion, the “Somalia” battalion survived and held on, then they are for us, in my opinion. And so - we are enemy number one for them, why "Well, that's my opinion, at least I'm telling it like it is. They start accusing me of something, they start filing some kind of criminal cases there,"
the militant admitted.
In general, Russian propaganda is actively using terrorist commander Givi in the information war against Ukraine. Thus, he spreads the opinion that the supposedly occupied territory of the Donetsk region will never return to Ukraine, and terrorists will seize the entire administrative part of the Donetsk region.
In mid-September 2015, Givi once again announced the presence of mythical foreign mercenaries in Avdievka and that he did not want to comply with the Minsk agreements.
“Vodino, Avdeevka, Lastochkino - everywhere there is information about the influx of mercenaries. In Lastochkino there are “blacks”, excuse me, African Americans. They have come to Avdeevka several times,” -
Givi said as part of Russian media propaganda.
However, residents of Avdeevka told reporters from Donbass News that foreigners fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army had never been seen in Avdeevka and Lastochkino.
In the same month, the portal timeua.com reported that the commander of the “Somalia” militant detachment, Mikhail Tolstykh, was appointed head of a “separate assault battalion”, which comes under the direct leadership of the leader of the “DPR” Alexander Zakharchenko. The training of Zakharchenko’s personal guards, which is what the separatists themselves called the newly created battalion under the leadership of Givi on social networks, will be very different from the training of other DPR militants. In addition to increased attention to physical training, an important element will be the development of skills and coordination of actions of foot assault groups and cover technology in conditions of interaction at short distances, as well as during street battles. In this battalion of militants, special emphasis, according to Zakharchenko’s instructions, will be placed on combat operations in buildings of varying degrees of height.
A ceremonial presentation of membership cards of the separatist movement “Donetsk Republic” to militants from the “Ministry of Defense” of the “DPR” also took place. Membership cards were presented personally by Alexander Zakharchenko. Among the new DPR activists who received tickets was Mikhail Tolstykh.
In February 2016, Givi had a conflict with another leader, Alexander Khodakovsky. Thus, the leader of the illegal armed group stated that the commander of the “Vostok” brigade and the so-called “secretary of the Security Council” of the self-proclaimed “DPR” Alexander Khodakovsky is engaged in subversive activities in favor of Ukraine.
According to Givi, Khodakovsky will be on the side of the militants until the Ukrainian side gives him the command.
“I talked to him a couple of times. The man is an SBU officer, brought up in such a structure, so it was unpleasant to communicate with this person,” -
said the militant Givi.
He emphasized that he absolutely does not trust Khodakovsky:
"I don't believe a word he says."
Among other things, Givi believes that Khodakovsky is to blame for the losses suffered by the militants during the battle for Donetsk airport in May 2014.
And in March 2016, information appeared that in occupied Makeyevka, Donetsk region, the terrorist base of the “Somalia” battalion had closed its activities.
Volunteer and coordinator of the Stop Terror project Semyon Kabakaev reported this on his Facebook.
“For three days in Makeyevka, the base of the terrorist battalion “Somalia” was curtailing its activities. The PPD was located in a former vocational school. Almost everything was removed, equipment, defensive structures, bags, etc. Equipment related to radio electronics, several antennas remained in the neighboring building and complexes. Apparently, they will remove them later," writes the volunteer.
“It seems that this is the end of the popular “legend” under the call sign Givi. If they take you back to work at the supermarket, then that’s good,” he added.
And according to Ukrainian intelligence, a new wave of purges of unreliable commanders of the “DPR” militants has begun in the occupied territories of Donbass. The list of undesirables included the gangs "Sparta" (commander - Arseny "Motorola" Pavlov), "Somalia" (commander - Mikhail "Givi" Tolstykh) and "Vostok" (commander - Alexander Khodakovsky).
Later he was accused of organizing the murder of the Somalia commander. “What else should they [the DPR] say? Why are they, excuse me, pissing each other in the toilet? It’s clear that they need to blame someone,” Avakov’s adviser told RBC.
Former tanker
How told in one interview, 36-year-old Tolstykh (originally from Ilovaisk, Donetsk region), he served as a tank commander in the Ukrainian army, where he took the call sign Givi in honor of his Georgian great-grandfather. Then Tolstykh worked as an industrial climber and driver at a rope factory.
With the outbreak of hostilities in the Donbass, he fought on the side of the forces of the self-proclaimed DPR near Slavyansk and was part of Igor Strelkov’s group. But Tolstykh and his battalion gained fame during the battles for the new terminal of the Donetsk airport. During multi-day battles, Tolstoy’s detachment managed to occupy the ruins of a building that was defended by soldiers of the Ukrainian army. In addition, the Tolstoy detachment fought near Ilovaisk, where it participated in the encirclement of the Ukrainian group. In recent battles near Avdeevka, he was wounded.
Ukrainian trace version
Leaders of the self-proclaimed republics are not yet in a hurry to comment on the death of the Tolstoys. One of the leaders of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, did not answer RBC’s calls. According to the representative of the LPR in the Minsk negotiation group, Vladislav Deinego, he does not yet have any information about possible versions. Former head of the DPR Alexander Borodai also declined to comment to RBC.
The State Duma believes that the Ukrainian side is behind the death of Tolstoy. “This fits into the general trend of Ukraine preparing an offensive in the Donbass,” Konstantin Zatulin, first deputy chairman of the Committee on CIS Affairs, United Russia member, told RBC. He recalls that “just the other day the chief of the LPR police was killed, Ukraine continues to gather equipment and forces in Avdeevka and shell Donetsk.” At the same time, Zatulin believes that Kiev has not made a final decision on the offensive and they continue to watch the West’s reaction to their actions.
A former DPR officer told RBC that Givi was always loyal to the authorities and his death could not be connected with a rebellion against the leadership of the unrecognized republic or Russian curators. On the other hand, in his opinion, although the Ukrainian sabotage group could theoretically commit murder using internal agents, Tolstykh is not a commander whose murder will change the situation at the front. His media fame on a par with Motorola did not correspond to his real influence in the army, the source indicates.
Just like Motorola, Givi, according to RBC sources in the unrecognized republics, was not interested in politics and did not have his own people in the DPR parliament.
Russian trace version
“From a professional point of view, the murder of Tolstoy is the result of the disgusting work of the DPR counterintelligence,” - commented Strelkov on his VKontakte page. According to him, since the shot caught Givi in his office, it means that either the killers installed an indoor surveillance camera in the office, or had agents in his close circle.
The killers' preparedness is similar to the operation of Motorola, who died in a booby-trapped elevator in his own home. The plastic sheet was attached to the elevator cable, despite the fact that a watchman was sitting at the entrance.
According to Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Fesenko, the assassination attempt on the Tolstoys could have been carried out by “underground sabotage groups” connected “with Russian special services.” “We have already seen more than once purges for internal reasons: for example, the liquidation of especially anarchist commanders Bednov and Dremov. The version of the struggle for control of financial flows also cannot be excluded. Perhaps the most odious figures are simply being removed. Russia, after negotiations with the West, can remove Plotnitsky and Zakharchenko from their posts and the leaders of the separatist republics,” he said in a comment to RBC.
Political scientist Vadim Karasev agrees with Fesenko. In his opinion, if their own people are involved in the death of the Tolstoys, this means that “a purge of military field commanders is underway”, who become simply unnecessary in the course of setting a course for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, “since they are “simply in the way.”
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov rejected the version of Moscow's involvement in the assassination attempt. “We absolutely and quite unequivocally exclude any [involvement], we deny accusations against the Russian side about possible involvement in this, there can be no question of this,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
If the Ukrainian special services are behind the assassination attempt on the Tolstoys, then this is a blow to the most active military leaders of the DPR, which in turn can lead to demoralization of a number of military units of the self-proclaimed republic, Karasev notes. “Givi’s death symbolizes a fork in the road: either the process will shift towards negotiations and real political regulation, or vice versa - towards a sharp military escalation, an outbreak of military violence, an attempt to resolve the conflict not so much diplomatically as through military means,” Karasev summed up.
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Series of sweeps
The death of Mikhail Tolstykh became the second high-profile terrorist attack in recent years in the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. On February 4 of this year in Lugansk, the head of the people's militia department of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), Oleg Anashchenko, was killed as a result of a car explosion.
One of the most high-profile terrorist attacks was the death of another prominent military figure of the DPR - the commander of the Sparta battalion, Russian Arsen Pavlov, known under the call sign Motorola. He was also at his home on October 16, 2016. Officially, the DPR leaders blamed Ukrainian saboteurs for the attempt on Pavlov’s life, and later reported on the capture of a sabotage group that allegedly took responsibility for Pavlov’s liquidation.
Attempts on the lives of field commanders of the DPR and LPR began in the summer of 2015. In early January 2015, former LPR Defense Minister Alexander Bednov, known as Batman, was killed. The LPR authorities then accused Bednov and his people of robbery, kidnapping and torture.
In May 2015, the commander of the Prizrak battalion, Alexey Mozgovoy, was killed. Officially, the LPR authorities blamed the Ukrainian special services for its liquidation. Shortly before Mozgovoy’s death, he allowed himself to openly criticize the Donetsk militia, saying that military operations for LPR fighters are “pure business.” At Mozgovoy’s funeral, his comrades told an RBC correspondent that they considered the leader of the LPR Igor Plotnitsky guilty of his death.
In December 2015, Cossack ataman Pavel Dremov, another field commander who criticized Igor Plotnitsky, was killed.
The killings of LPR and DPR supporters continued in 2016. In early October, in the village of Slavyanoserbsk, Lugansk region, Armen Bagiryan (Baggy) and several associates were shot dead. And on September 19, the leader of the pro-Russian organization “Oplot”, Alexander Zhilin, was killed in the Moscow region. The Investigative Committee of Russia soon stated that the main version of the murder was Zhilin’s commercial activities.
