Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

A commander of one of the pro-Russian separatists' battalions in the east of Ukraine, Mikhail Kishchik, has been killed. Better known under the nickname Misha the Chechen, Kishchik died as Russian troops and separatists' forces began an assault against the Ukrainian army in the east of the country.

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's republic (LNR) Sergei Kozlov writes on his social media account: "Sad news from the front line. A patriot of the LNR, Lt Col Mikhail Kishchik has died."

Kozlov adds Kishchik and his comrades were surrounded by Ukrainians close to the town of Kreminna and "fought to the last".

"We are establishing the number of those killed and wounded," he adds.

Kreminna is one of the points on the front line where Russian forces are trying to advance towards the bigger towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk, held by the Ukrainian troops.

Kishchik and his battalion have been fighting against the Ukrainian forces since 2014. In the early stages of the conflict, he and his fighters were accused of looting residential areas in the Luhansk region.

In 2016, during a lull in the hostilities in the east of Ukraine, a Russian independent newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" published an investigation, naming Kishchik one of the chiefs of a smuggling ring in the east of Ukraine. He never commented on the allegations.