DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Allies compare him to the general who forced Napoleon's armies out of Russia and support him in his role as the pro-Moscow separatists' defence chief in eastern Ukraine, but for some rebel leaders Igor Girkin's orders carry little authority.
The decision by Girkin, better known by his nom de guerre Strelkov, to abandon the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk at the weekend gave Kiev its biggest military victory yet in its three-month campaign against the separatists.
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