KIEV, August 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) Igor Strelkov has been badly wounded and is in serious condition, the Donetsk-based news agency Novorossiya said on Wednesday.

“Igor Strelkov is badly wounded. We were told so by a source in the Novorossiya [common reference to the Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed republics] leadership. He is in grave condition,” the agency said.

DNR Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin could not confirm or deny this information. He told ITAR-TASS that Strelkov had been in the area of intensive fighting lately.

“I have no precise information, but this is likely to be true. As far as I know, he was not in Donetsk but in the area of Shakhtersk, Torez and Snezhnoye where intensive fighting is going on,” Purgin told ITAR-TASS by telephone.