Ukrainian separatist military commander
Mikhail Sergeyevich Tolstykh (; ; 19 July 1980 – 8 February 2017), better known by his "nom de guerre" Givi (Гиви), was a Ukrainian separatist officer wanted for war crimes. He was mainly known as the commander of the collaborationist Donetsk People's Republic's Somalia Battalion during the war in Donbas from 2014, until his assassination in early 2017.
Biography.
In his interview to "Komsomolskaya Pravda", Tolstykh said he was from Ilovaisk and served as a conscript in the Ukrainian Army from 1998 to 2000 at a military training center, and wanted to continue in the army as a voluntary soldier after 2000 but was denied due to his speech impediment. He then worked at a sling rope factory and as a security guard in a supermarket. In an interview he stated that his grandfather was an ethnic Georgian; his nickname Givi is Georgian.
Tolstykh joined the rebels in the early stages of the war and was involved in the Battle of Ilovaisk. Givi led the DPR Somalia Battalion in the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport. "The Telegraph" wrote a brief article about him where he gives interview to Novorossiya TV, during which an explosion took place in close vicinity.
On 16 February 2015, Tolstykh was included by the European Council in their sanctions list. In 2016, he was charged in Ukraine with crimes including the creation of a terrorist organization, abduction, and abuse of prisoners of war.
Treatment of prisoners.
In January 2015, several videos surfaced of Tolstykh physically abusing captured Ukrainian artillerymen from the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport. Tolstykh is seen clearly identifying himself before grabbing the prisoners by the face, brandishing a dagger, and cutting off military insignia and forcing prisoners to eat them. Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties, called what appears in the videos "flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions" and said she was preparing the groundwork for prosecution.
Death.
Early in the morning of 8 February 2017, while working in his Donetsk office, Tolstykh was killed by an explosion said to be caused by an RPO-A Shmel rocket launcher fired from an unknown distance. DPR officials accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out the attack, while Ukrainian security officials claimed it to be the result of DPR infighting. In 2022, journalist Yuriy Butusov claimed that Tolstykh was killed by a counter-intelligence unit of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) which was approved by then-president Petro Poroshenko. A 2024 article in the "New York Times" reported that agents of the Security Service of Ukraine operating behind enemy lines were responsible for Tolstykh's death, having remotely fired a rocket launcher from a building directly across from Tolstykh's office.
References.
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