Ukrainian Security Service unmasks Russian special ops soldier who killed LPR ringleader and got rid of Plotnitsky
The counter intelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has unmasked the Russian special forces soldier Alexander “Gray” Sadovy, who has been one of the most active participants in Russian special operations in the occupied Luhansk province since 2014, TSN writes.
Sadovy was born in Russia on 13 November 1969. A colonel, he is the director of the so-called “Special Forces Center of the LPR Interior Ministry”.
He was sent by Russia’s intelligence agency to occupied Luhansk to create and oversee a special forces police division.
Sadovy’s unit was initially called the “special rapid response unit”, but was soon renamed the “Special Forces Center”. It was outfitted with the best weaponry and equipment. The division also included mine experts and technical specialists. Subsequently the division’s true purpose was revealed.
Sadovy’s primary function was actually to plan and personally lead a “purging” of the armed groups, which the occupiers had started to lose control of by the end of 2014.
However, the “Special Forces Center” was not limited to disarming a few unruly fighters, primarily from the Cossack groups. As of 2015, Sadovy regularly took an active part in specific incidents in the LPR.
On 1 January 2015, Alexey “Batman” Bednov, commander of the “rapid response group”, was brutally killed for “insubordination” towards the LPR Interior Ministry. His car was shot at with a large caliber weapon and apparently even a Shmel rocket launcher.
On 23 January 2015, Yevgeny Ishchenko, the so-called “commandant” of occupied Pervomaisk, was shot shortly after openly threatening LPR ringleader Igor Plotnitsky.
On 23 May 2015, Alexey Mozgovoy, commander of the “Ghost” brigade, was taken out. The previous day, he had directly accused the Kremlin of betraying the “Donbas militia”. Mozgovoy had frequently expressed opinions on the “independence” of the self-declared republic that Moscow considered seditious, and openly refused to submit his armed group to the Russian military command.
On 12 December 2015, Sadovy’s special forces gave no chance to the Cossack Ataman Pavel Dremov, commander of the Platov Cossack Regiment. His car was blown up as he was leaving a petrol station.
“After a series of high-profile killings, effectively no one in the LPR had a choice any more. The occupiers made it clear what awaited defiant people and free thinkers. Sadovy’s cutthroats never even considered the lives of completely uninvolved bystanders during their hit jobs,” the article observes.
In November 2017, the supervisors at Russia’s Federal Security Service orchestrated a military coup in the LPR. Sadovy’s special forces division and “little green men” from Russia disarmed the groups under Plotnitsky’s control and his personal bodyguards, blockaded him at his residence, and had fun throwing grenades over the fence. Having learned from his predecessors’ experiences, Plotnitsky took the hint quickly and left for Russia a few hours later.