According to local media, Pavlov, the commander of the Sparta Battalion special forces unit, was killed after a remotely-detonated improvised explosive device blew up in an elevator shaft in the apartment building where he and his family lived. DPR authorities suspect Ukrainian saboteurs to be behind the attack. Pavlov was threatened directly by President Petro Poroshenko just last month. In early September, in a ceremony dedicated to Ukrainian servicemen killed in eastern Ukraine, including Igor Branovitsky, who died in 2014 amid brutal fighting for Donetsk Airport, Poroshenko claimed that Pavlov had murdered the soldier in cold blood in captivity, and vowed that the DPR commander would "answer for the death of a Ukrainian hero."
Arseny Pavlov, also known by his nickname 'Motorola', stands inside a destroyed airport building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk
There have been multiple attempts on Pavlov's life over the course of the two-and-a-half year civil war in eastern Ukraine, which began in April 2014 after Kiev moved troops to the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk to put down uprisings against new authorities in Kiev. The commander had survived two assassination attempts in just the last five months, and was twice wounded in fighting with Ukrainian forces in battles in 2014 and 2015. In other words, Pavlov had a price on his head long before Poroshenko decided to try to implicate him in the deaths of Ukrainian POWs.
Pavlov was born in 1983 in Ukhta, northern Russia. He served two tours in the Russian anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, where he got his nickname 'Motorola' for his work as a signals operator. Before arriving in Ukraine, he lived in neighboring Rostov-on-Don. In 2014, observing the coup d'état in Kiev, and hearing the threats made by nationalists against Ukraine's Russian minority, Pavlov came to eastern Ukraine, eventually joining the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic's militia. He and his unit were given numerous medals for the defense of DPR territory against Ukrainian forces. Pavlov held the title 'Hero of the DPR'.
Assassination Threatens to Destroy Shaky Peace