We would like to follow up on our article ‘Fighting breaks out between Separatist Groups and Russian Special Forces in Antratsyt’, published on the 1^st December. In this article we reported on a `shoot-out’ between forces of the LPR and the Cossack militants fighting for the LPR in which sound information was received about the death of the leader of the Cossack forces.

The burial of Vyacheslav Pinezhanin, the commandant of the Cossack National Guard, and his deputy, took place this afternoon. InformNapalm.org received confirmation of the funeral from its own local sources.

The city center was blocked by traffic police, many cars and a large number of people came to the square in front of the district administration. Measures were taken to protect the city center, including bring in an armored troop-carrier which was moved from Krasnoluchskyi traffic police post.

While the corpse of the previous “official” is still warm, a new candidate for the post of Cossack commandant appeared. He is a local person named Michael, but his surname is not currently known.

In an attempt to try to extinguish the conflict between the groups of LPR and the Cossack National Guard, the Don Cossacks announced that the perpetrators of the murder of the commandant have been arrested.

The Cossack chieftain Kozitsyn is also trying to create the appearance that he still has some influence on the Cossack National Guard. He is handing out awards and titles to Cossacks from the groups fighting in LPR territory from his base in Novocherkassk.

We recall that armed clashes took place in Antratsyt on November 28. The original article can be found here.

Roman Burko of InformNapalm. November 30, 2014

Translated by Maria Holubeva