‘Motorola’s murderer shows it was a well prepared special operation’

People's hero, republic's favourite

Aleksander, did you personally know Arseny Pavlov (Motorola)?

Yes, I met him during the defence of Slavyansk in May-June 2014. I was on the frontline in Semyonovka settlement. Motorola was in the settlement, while we were on the territory of a hospital. I did not participate with him in fights. But I knew him, we met and talked several times.

How did you remember him?

As a person, he was an alive and bright, idea-driven guy. He was a born fighter, a great soldier. He fought not because he was an adventurer, a 'soldier of fortune' (militia has such people) but because he had an ideology and he thought his place was where Russians needed help and protection.

Do you know any other attempts on his life?

Yes, there were many attempts made by Ukrainian radicals or Ukrainian intelligence, it is difficult to distinguish them. Each time they failed. Each time Ukrainians reported Motorola was dead. It happened 5-7 times to my knowledge. At first I thought what happened the day before was another Ukrainian fake. I approached the place where the explosion erupted. I made sure it was true. Comrades confirmed he was dead. The militia was deeply shocked, of course.

As I understand, fighters found it difficult to accept this loss. How did the civilians in DNR and LNR react to this murderer?

Motorola was the people's hero, the republic's favourite. People were touched by this murderer. As for the militia, I can judge by myself: it is a major setback, of course. But I don't feel any demoralisation, panic. There is evil, there is a desire to take a revenge, continue this job that Motorola did, we did during the war.

'Motorola was the people's hero, the republic's favourite. People were touched by this murderer.' Photo: rusvesna.su

'These Minsk Agreements are a clever thing: politicians' game'

Can a reprisal be expected?

Many things are expected. Zakharchenko [Editor's Note: the head of DNR] talked tough two hours after the attack and again provoked expectations that peace ended and DNR would take some measures against the auxiliary power unit (APU). Taking into account that the frontline is still on fire, there are attempts to penetrate, shelling doesn't cease. A serious reprisal was expected. But there were standard military actions. Yesterday we neutralised this penetration in the south of DNR. There were ordinary countermeasures, which are nothing more than a daily local and positional war. I admit Moscow supervisors affected the authority of DNR to not to 'be carried away by emotions'. So serious measures cannot be expected now. Moreover, Basurin [Editor's Note: Eduard Baturin is the press secretary and deputy army commander of DNR] mentioned in his yesterday's report that despite that tragedy, they would continue meeting the Minsk Agreements.

You have told that Ukrainian siloviks started attacking in the south. Is there any connection between it and the attack in Donetsk?

As for military actions, they have been continuing here for almost a week. It has been the third attempt to penetrate in the southern borders. APU are trying to attack this part of the front with armed vehicles almost every day. Each time the opponent has from 10 to 20 people killed. We also have losses. As a rule, the attackers have greater losses. This is why they have more killed people than we do. Nevertheless, the losses are painful. Their attacks are pointless: maybe they wanted to warm up, test their divisions. But nothing has drastically changed in this part of the front for now.

In other words, have the Minsk Agreements been definitely buried?

These Minsk Agreements are a clever thing. There seems to be a peace deal. At the same time it doesn't exist. This has been continuing for two years. People are dying, fights don't cease: at times they are more active, at times less. The Minsk Agreements are a game of politicians. They play it, though, they play with people's lives in fact. For us, militiamen, there is no peace deal, no agreement. It is told once in a month that the Minsk Agreements are buried for certain. It kept in suspense. It is a political rhetoric that I don't want to use.

'These Minsk Agreements are a clever thing. There seems to be a peace deal. At the same time it doesn't exist. It has been continuing for two years.' Photo: polytika.ru

Domestic squabbles vs. special operations of APU

Is it true that Motorola had disagreements with Strelkov and other commanders of the militia?

There were not any important disagreements and those that would lead to Motorola's murderer by one of our people. He had good relations with all commanders, worked with them as a person and soldier. There were not any disagreements with Strelkov. He also commented it yesterday. I exclude the version that that squabbles were domestic. Before murderers of commanders might be connected with political or criminal problems. But the commanders did not fight with each other, they did not kill each other on the sly.

It is rumoured about a criminal trace of Arseny Pavlov's murderer…

Motorola did not participate in any criminal schemes. There were rumours that he nicked, covered somebody or disarmed, calmed down, solved conflicts. These rumours don't correspond to the reality. Yes, Motorola participated in special operation inside the republic, but it was connected with disruptive Ukrainian elements inside DNR. He was completely wrapped up in the war, military exercises, training of his fighters, intelligence operations. I am sure Ukrainians are behind Motorola's murderer.

Death of many militia leaders are attached to actions of diversionary groups of the Auxiliary Power Unit. Why was not there any response?

Why do you think there was not any response?

Anyway, I have not heard of a similar liquidation of the opponent's commanders.

Right, we don't have loud famous operations. But out people work in many occupied territories of DNR and Novorossiya in general. There are different disruptive operations. First of all, they are not made public by the heads of LDNR. Secondly, results of these operations are covered up by Ukrainians. However, key players like Right Sector of Yarosh [Editor's Note: organisation banned in Russia] were not eliminated, unfortunately.

Probably the problem is the lack of good specialists working behind enemy lines and elimination of well-protected people. The enemy seems to have such people. What happened to Motorola shows it was a well prepared special operation. They are not the radicals like those who shot a video and took the responsibility for Motorola's elimination – it is rubbish made by schoolkids.

'Military actions have been continuing here for almost a week. It has been the third attempt to penetrate in southern borders.' Photo: rusvesna.su

Your forecast: what will happen next in Ukraine and in the zone of military actions?

It is an unpleasant job to make forecasts. There are many factors that the course of military actions turns on. There are global factors that affect our situation, for example, presidential elections in the USA and Russia. It is difficult to talk about these things clearly. Taking into account that many forecasts and expectations were not true in the last two years, there is no desire to specify. In any case, we are ready to protect our borders and continue the national liberation war, which was interrupted in 2014, at any time. Then everything will depend on the policy of Russia and countries of the West (EU, USA), how they come to an agreement.