First conviction made in Givi murder trial

Donetsk, May 22 – DAN. The DPR Ministry of State Security has announced the first conviction in the Mikhail ‘Givi’ Tolstykh murder trial as the court found a DPR resident Dmitry Batrak had been involved in the crime.

“It has been established that Batrak had photographed and filmed administrative buildings in Dontesk, collected information on moving and location of military equipment to be further passed to the Ukrainian Security Service,” the Ministry said.

Batrak also bought and passed a Phoenix sim-card to be further used in the plot to kill Givi.

In May 2019 court found Batrak guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Mikhail Tolstykh (call sign “Givi”) was born in Ilovaisk in 1980. He had served in the Ukrainian army and joined DPR People’s Militia from the very beginning of the conflict. Tolstykh participated in the battles for Slavyansk, Ilovaisk and the Donetsk Airport. A DPR hero decorated with two St George Crosses and For Slavyansk Defence medal, Colonel Tolskykh survived several assassination attempts and was wounded several times in combat. He was killed in a terrorist attack at the Somali unit headquarters in Makeyevka on 8 February 2017. *ot

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