alexey-mozgovoy-killed-ukraine
By Damien Sharkov
Staff Writer
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Alexey Mozgovoy, one of the most prominent separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine has been buried in rebel-held lands in Luhansk today, after he was shot in his car on Saturday night, local news agency Interfax reports.
Mozgovoy led the pro-Russian Prizrak (Ghost) fighter battalion which has been operating in the Luhansk region of Ukraine's war stricken Donbas area since last spring. Pro-Kremlin Russian media claim that by August the Prizrak battalion had amassed 1,000 volunteer fighters.
Mozgovoy was shot dead while driving to Perevalsk in the southwest of the region with four other passengers who are also confirmed to have died in the incident, three of whom were fighters while one was the battalion's press secretary Anna Samelyuk.
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According to Interfax, Mozgovoy's vehicle was first targetted with an explosive and then fired at with a rifle. The separatist local government have said the rifle fire also killed three civilians, including a pregnant woman traveling nearby who had no affiliation with the Prizrak battalion, but were caught in the crossfire.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, broke the news of Mozgovoy's death over the weekend and reported that it had not been Ukrainian troops that killed the rebel leader but rather, Russian agents from Moscow's military intelligence, GRU.
Luhansk rebels have accused groups loyal to Kiev for masterminding the attack, arguing that the Ukrainian government is trying to destabilize their self-proclaimed separatist Luhansk people's Republic.
Mozgovoy and the other Prizrak members killed in the attack was today buried in Alchevsk - the city in Luhansk where the battalion is based. Since Mozgovoy's death, his successor Yuri Shevchenko at the Prizrak battalion and other fighters have called on the group to rename itself after Mozgovoy.
In November, an infamous video was circulated online which showed Mozgovoy and other fighters of the Prizrak battalion sentencing an alleged child molester to death after they voted with a show of hands. Mozgovoy acts as the prosecution, while his colleague hails the "trial" as a chance for the jury to act as "a real civil society".
Mozgovoy's death is one of the few confirmed high profile rebel casualties of the Ukraine crisis, as previously separatists leaders Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin and Igor Besler have both been reported dead, only for rebel sources to deny reports.
Alexander Zaharchenko, who replaced Strelkov last year, was wounded in the leg in February, however Russian media quickly obtained footage of his recovery in hospital.
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