Written by Chris Covert exclusively for SouthFront
The commander of the 7th Separate Brigade of the Donetsk People’s Republic, based at Debaltstevo, was killed Sunday morning in a roadside bomb attack, according to several Russian language social media outlets and news websites.
Colonel Aleksandr Bushuev apparently was riding or driving a vehicle when it ran over a land mine at a railroad crossing in Makievka near Donetsk, according to a post at the Russian language blog Chervonets Andryuha. According to Chervonets Andryuha, a former rebel commaner Igor Bezler wrote on his wife’s Vkontakte page about the incident. That post since has been taken private and is publicly unavailable.
According to Ukrainian blogger Roman Sinitsyn, Col. Bushuev was formerly commander of the Russian 83rd Separate Air Assault Brigade before coming to Donetsk [as a volunteer] and commanding the 7th Brigade. [According to Ukrainian sources, there are only Russian GRU colonels and Russian special forces in Donbass]
Official rebel media has made no mention of the incident so far. Usually rebel media in both Donetsk and Lugansk are very diligent even in reporting the death of top commanders.
Colonel Bushuev’s 7th Brigade recently successfully defended the area of Logvinovo at the line of contact in their area of operation, preventing a Ukrainian probe from reaching Debaltsevo June 29th.
40 homes damaged in Zaistevo/Gorlovka
A total of 40 residential buildings were damaged in overnight artillery attacks by Ukrainian armed forces, according to a news item posted at the Russian language Gorlovka Pravda.
The artillery attacks began at 2000 hrs and did not stop until around 0430 July 4th. Two unidentified individuals were wounded by shrapnel. One residential building was destroyed by fire in the attacks.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian artillery attacks continued overnight, July 3rd to July 4th, in several sectors of the line of contact in Donetsk, according to data supplied by the Donetsk ministry of defense. Among the locations hit in northern Donetsk were Spartak, Mineralnoye, Yasinovataya, Trudovskoy Staromykhailivka, Gorlovka and Zaitsevo.
In southern Donetsk, Ukrainian artillery struck rebel positions at Leninskoye, Oktyabr, Sahanka, Kominternovo and in the Novoazovskiy district.
According to the Donetsk ministry of defense, a total of 219 shells were fired at the various locations from 82mm and 120mm mortars.
The Ukrainian ministry of defense said in its daily briefing that rebel artillery struck locations in Donetsk city to include Peski, near western Donetsk city and Zaitsevo, which is north of Gorlovka, where rebel forces used 122mm artillery and at Avdievka, where rebel forces used 120mm mortar fire.
In southern Donetsk, rebel artillery struck Ukrainian positions at Shirokino using 122mm artillery and 120mm and 82mm mortar fire, as well a antitank rocket fire and small arms fire, according to official Ukrainian media. Rebels used 120mm mortar fire to hit Vodyanoma and Krasnogorovka.
Ukrainian artillery struck rebel positions in northern Lugansk as well as well as the forward zones near Logvinovo, according to a news report which appeared in regnum.ru. Locations hit include the villages of Sanzharovka, Loginov, Kalinovka, Lozove and Kalinovo
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
The militias never hide anything, either they got orders from Russia to remain silent or it’s not true (wouldn’t be the first time the jew-owned Ukrops lie).