Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels vow retaliation after
commander dies in blast
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| A file photo of pro-Russian commander Arseny Pavolov.- AFP |
(Vatican Radio) A leader of
Russian backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has vowed to retaliate against
Ukrainian government forces after a fellow commander died in rebel-controlled
Donetsk in an apparent assassination. Arseny Pavlov, who once boasted about killing
more than a dozen captured soldiers, died following a bomb attack, authorities
said.
Pro-Russian separatists said
Arseny Pavlov, a Russian citizen better known by his nickname Motorola, died of
serious injuries after an improvised explosive device detonated as he
entered the elevator of his apartment building in the separatist stronghold of
Donetsk in war-torn eastern Ukraine. A bodyguard reportedly also died in
Sunday's blast.
The attack ended the life of
a man who once boosted to have killed as many as 15 prisoners of war. He was
the latest among several rebel figures known to have been killed recently amid
reports of fighting among the seperatists.
However Aleksandr
Zakharchenko, who heads the separatist entity that calls itself the Donetsk
People's Republic has blamed Ukraine's central authorities for the blast that
killed Pavlov, who headed a fighting force called the Sparta battalion.
Zakharchenko said the killing
amounted to a "declaration of war" by President Petro Poroshenko. He
vowed to retaliate against members of Ukraine's military and security services,
as well as their families. "All Ukrainian officers, lieutenant colonels,
majors who operate on our territory, all your agents, families, are beyond the
law as of now," he said during a press briefing.
MORE ATTACKS
"Not only here but in
Zhytomyr, [the capital] Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk," he added, listing
cities that are under government control.
"And I would add: when
we come to your home, there will be no mercy towards you, believe me."
But Ukraine's Interior
Ministry said Pavlov got what he deserved.
Pavlov, who was 33, was born
in Russia's northern Komi Republic and was reported to have once lived in
Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border.
He was married with two
children, who were reportedly inside the family's Donetsk apartment at the time
of the blast. The marriage, celebrated with guns and roses in Donetsk, was
reportedly his second and conducted without him having divorced his first
wife.
Hours after Pavlov's death
was reported, an unverified video showing four masked, armed men taking credit
for the killing was shared online by Russian media and separatist supporters.
NEO-NAZI GROUP
Standing in front of a
Ukrainian flag as well as one representing a neo-Nazi group with roots in
Ukraine and Russia, one man vows to come also after leader Zakharchenko and
Luhansk separatist leader Ihor Plotnitsky next, before the four men make a Nazi
salute.
Critics cautioned that the
authenticity of the video could not be confirmed, and said Russian media have
used faked footage in the past during the conflict.
Yet the latest bloodshed has
underscored the difficulties to reach peace in eastern Ukraine.
The conflict between
pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces has been raging in the
region since April 2014, killing more than 9,600 people.
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