A video titled “ Lt. Col. Alexander Bednov has been killed ” has been uploaded to YouTube by a “Novorossiya” supporter showing the pro-separatist war correspondent nick-named “Kot” as interviewing members of the battalion’s personal security detail for Batman named “Olimp” [Olympus] and “Rybak” [Fisherman]. He found them, shaken, guarding the battalion’s armor inside the city of Lugansk, not on the front line, at a location they would not reveal for security reasons.

There have been conflicting accounts of whether “Batman” and his men were indeed executed or whether they are still alive.

As we reported earlier today , Aleksandr Bednov, known as “San Sanych” [Aleksandr Aleksandrovich] whose nick-name was “Batman,” was killed in an ambush today along with his guard on orders of his own commander-in-chief, Igor Plotnitsky, prime minister of the self-declared “Lugansk People’s Republic.”

The Interpreter has a translation of an excerpt:

Kot: San

Sanych (Bednov or “Batman”) Bednov perished. He was meanly executed,

from an ambush, and along with him, his guard was executed. We will

speak with witnesses now of that incident, or to be more precise, that

base, villainous act.

Olimp: We’re from the personal security of San Sanych Bednov.

Rybak: I’m his personal guard, my nickname is Rybak [Fisherman].

Kot: So

as far as I know the security was killed. So how did it turn out — I

don’t mean to say anything bad — that you ended up alive? What were the

circumstances. You’re standing in front of the camera now.

Olimp: It’s just that we had several shifts. That is one group would work first, then the second one. We were in the shift group.

Rybak:

The situation was this, sort of. It wasn’t our shift group, it was my

shift, but my brother asked to go in my place. He woke up earlier, and

he said, “Bro, let me go in your place.” So he went instead of me, and

he wound up there.

Kot: So, in short, your brother was killed.

Rybak: Yes.

Kot: My condolences.



Rybak: His name was Valentin, his nick-name was “Pulya” (Bullet)

Kot: Again, my condolences, and the condolences of all our viewers.

So tell us the details, as the entire Internet has exploded. So much information has come out, he’s killed or not killed.

I

was told right before coming here that San Sanych is alive, that’s at

the SBU [Ukrainian Security Service], that he’s in a cellar, he was

thrown in there. That somebody is even planning to bring him food there,

and so on.

Olimp: I’ll tell you approximately how it was, from

the words of eyewitnesses that called us. San Sanych, along with — I’ll

put it this way — our family, our guys, they were going toward Krasny

Luch. When Batman got near Georgievka, when Batman was passing by

Georgievka, an attack was made from three positions. There were three

BTRs. That they wrote that Batman put up resistance…I’ll tell you,

there was nothing for him to put it up with. Of course our first job is

to protect him and open fire. But there was nothing to open with.

The…like…the cannon went off right away

Rybak: There are

several versions of the story. Either a remote-controlled mine went off

— the automobile was blown up from inside, and their car was armored –

it’s exploded not from the top, but exploded by a Tyulpan from inside [the 2S4 Tyulpan, a self-propelled mortar – The Interpreter],

so either a mine went off, or a Shmel was fired because the bodies were

all burned. One fighter who was able to identify our

brother [Kot from the Urals?], said all the guys burned. The escort car..the guys

couldn’t identify it…not even the pieces could be gathered together.

No one was offered a chance to surrender, or talk…

Kot: So it was a typical ambush. A lousy ambush.

Olimp:

It worked like in Afghanistan. Usually ambushes are set up along the

sides of the road. As the eyewitnesses said, “They almost shot

themselves.” When they began to open fire, first, they finished off the

guys. There were holes like this in the car [shows the size at 4:53].



Rybak: The car was destroyed with a large-caliber machine-gun. From my own experience I can say, yes, they finished them off.

Olimp: Yes, they simply…

Rybak: At first, the car, then they finished them off.



Olimp:

The only thing, the reason we recognized “Kot,” our brother, at the

moment of the explosion, he was thrown — through an armored window this

thick [demonstrates at 5:13]. He was just thrown out. He flew out and

was lying on the road. Eyewitnesses say that apparently…they then

finished him off. Maybe he was still alive, but most likely they

finished..him..off.

Kot: I see.

Later, Rybak explains that the guards couldn’t be accused of opening fire because they’d have to first open the door, they couldn’t shoot through an armored car door. He said there was no evidence they had fired their weapons and this could be proven by examining them and seeing the ammunition wasn’t expended. He believed they were deliberately executed before they had a chance to draw their weapons, and did not die in a firefight.

The page in the Russian social media of the wife of Alexander Bednov, Alla Bednov (Mikhailova) has been deleted, although it is still visible for now in the web cache.

That has led to concerns that she may have been executed as well, but there is no evidence of that, and it is possible administrators or Russian security officials simply removed or hid the pages to remove possible evidence. The Bednovs had a young son.

Aleksandr Bednov and Irina Bednova. Via VKontakte.

The page of Bednov’s sister, Alla Bednova, is still viewable, where she uploaded a photo of herself bearing a rifle.

While earlier today she had a post from the VK group called Attache, saying “He is still alive! In the cellar!” later she put up a post that said, “

‘Batman,’ Lt. Col. Alexander Bednov, chief of staff of the 4th Brigade of the LNR has been killed.”

The Batman Battalion on VKontakte, a group that is still showing also has a notice that their leader was killed, with contact information:

The battalion also posted a YouTube of a New Year’s greeting that Batman had made and had planned to post before he was killed.