Mikhail Tolstykh, right, a leader of the Russian-backed separatist army, in 2014 in Donetsk, Ukraine. Mr. Tolstykh was killed on Wednesday in an explosion in his office. Credit: Capucine Granier-Deferre for The New York Times
New York Times: Assassins Are Killing Ukraine’s Rebel Chiefs, but on Whose Orders?
MOSCOW — All died far from the front lines in circumstances unrelated to military action. They died in elaborate ambushes, car bomb attacks and, in one case, a booby-trapped elevator. The latest died on Wednesday in an explosion in his office.
The staccato of about half a dozen assassinations of commanders in the Russian-backed separatist army in eastern Ukraine has become one of the riddles of the war there since 2015, when the first unexplained killings of Cossack militia leaders occurred.
Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement in the killings, while welcoming them for thinning the ranks of the breakaway military.
The authorities in Kiev say the deaths point to either infighting in the separatist leadership or efforts by Russia to consolidate control by eliminating erratic, if popular, local commanders on their own side.
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WNU Editor: Yesterday's assassination of Mikhail Tolstykh (Givi) ....Top Ukraine Rebel- Commander Givi Assassinated In Eastern Ukraine (Febraury 7, 2017) gives me the heads-up that he was targeted by a Ukraine hit squad. He was not political .... his focus was always to be an effective military commander who must always be on the front lines. There was nothing to be gain by either Russia or by the many Ukraine rebel militia groups and leaders for his demise. My prediction .... we will only learn the truth long after this war has ended.
