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MOSCOW / AP
A prominent rebel leader in eastern Ukraine has been killed in an explosion in his office, his associates said on Wednesday.
The rebels’ Donetsk News Agency said Mikhail Tolstykh, better known under his nom de guerre Givi, died early Wednesday morning in what it described as a terrorist attack. The agency said 35-year old Tolstykh was killed by a rocket fired from a portable launcher into his office.
Russian state television showed pictures of firefighters putting out flames in the building where Toltsykh’s headquarters is believed to be. The footage from the scene showed several rooms in the building gutted from an apparent explosion.
Tolstykh’s death follows the assassination of his close associate Arsen Pavlov, also known as Motorola, last year, as well as other high-profile warlords. Yuri Tandit, an adviser to the chairman of the Ukrainian Security Service in Kiev, said on the 112 television channel that his agency was looking into the reports.
Tolstykh was one of the most recognizable faces in the conflict between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed rebels which has claimed more than 9,800 lives since it began in 2014.