Ukraine Day 1022: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
A number of unconfirmed reports have circulated today on Russian-language social media and some Ukrainian news sites that Mikhail Tolstykh, the commander of the Russia-backed separatist Somali battalion better known by his nom de guerre “Givi,” has been involved in a car bombing in Donetsk.
Twitter uses report variously that Givi has been threatened by Aleksandr Zakharchenko, head of the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic,” with whom he reportedly had a falling out, or that he was attacked and injured or was even killed. There has been no confirmation of any of these reports.
Translation: Zakharchenko threatens to send Givi to the next work to join Motorola.
“Motorola” is the call sign of another separatist commander (Arseny Pavlov) who was assassinated earlier this year.
The news article at Vse.media is based on an anonymous source in the anti-terrorist center of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) who alleged that Givi had illegally sold equipment from a number of coal mines, and that Zakharchenko planned to fire him and strip him of his military ranks for this, warning him that he would “join Motorola” if he repeated these offenses.
Translation: Assassination attempt on Givi, battalion commander is alive. The rest is the delusion of the dill-weeds.
The author is using a pejorative term for Ukrainians.
Translation: Hmm…The Putenites haven’t “blown up” the Somalis lately.
The author is making a play on words with the Russian word for “piss” and “Somali,” Givi’s battalion.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick