Commenting on the death of the commander of the Somalia battalion Mikhail Tolstykh (Givi) and the commander of the Sparta unit, Arsen Pavlov, who had the call sign Motorola, Surkov noted in the conversation that these people "were familiar to him" personally.
“For me, this is not an empty phrase, the death of each of them, especially Sasha Zakharchenko, who simply was for me and remains in fact a close person.
This is an important topic, including for me personally.
But still, we know the official versions that the law enforcement agencies of both the Donetsk and Luhansk republics have published.
They are, they were the result of an investigation.
All of them, as far as I remember, say that the Ukrainian special services are involved in all these terrorist attacks.
At least I don't see any other version that I could stick to, ”he said.
Alexander Zakharchenko died on August 31, 2018 in an explosion in a cafe in the center of Donetsk.
Subsequently, a memorial stone was installed at the site of the emergency.