Kiev and separatist rebels have traded accusations over an ambush that killed a prominent warlord and at least six members of his entourage in eastern Ukraine, as shelling continued to claim lives and ravage infrastructure in the region.
Cars carrying Alexei Mozgovoi and his bodyguards were blown up and raked with gunfire on Saturday night near Alchevsk, a town in Luhansk that is controlled by the notorious Prizrak ("Ghost") battalion he led.
Mr Mozgovoi came to prominence last year when footage emerged of him overseeing a “people’s court” in Alchevsk that condemned alleged rapists to death. It is not clear if the sentence was carried out.
He portrayed himself as an iron-willed defender of ordinary east Ukrainians and denounced both Kiev and rebel leaders on whose side he fought, accusing them of stealing humanitarian aid and striving for personal wealth and power.
Armed confrontation
Mr Mozgovoi was particularly critical of
Igor Plotnitsky
, head of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), who struggled to rein in local commanders who ran their areas like little fiefdoms. In recent months, several have been killed or “persuaded” through armed confrontation to bow to Mr Plotnitsky’s authority.
Officials in Kiev claimed Mr Mozgovoi was killed either directly by Mr Plotnitsky’s forces or by Russian troops tasked with removing unpredictable elements from the separatist movement in Luhansk.
“The attack on Alexei Mozgovoi and his allies is an attack on all of us, on people who defend the right to exist of the LNR,” Mr Plotnitsky said.
“One could have different views to Mozgovoi on the political process, but in the battle for the [LNR] we stood shoulder to shoulder,” he said, adding that the killings could “put us on a shaky path to a new escalation in the military conflict”.
Rebel officials blamed a Ukrainian sabotage group for the attack, but neither side gave any evidence to support their claims.
Kiev said at least one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and another injured in rebel shelling close to the port city of Mariupol yesterday.
More than 6,100 people have died and more than one million have been displaced since fighting erupted 13 months ago, and much of the infrastructure of eastern Ukraine – the country’s industrial heartland – has been badly damaged.
Heavy shelling on Saturday forced the closure of one of Europe’s biggest coke plants in the government-held town of Avdiivka, which could further disrupt local industry.