Leader of separatist Ukraine region assassinated in explosion

A PROMINENT pro-russian separatist leader in eastern Ukraine has been assassinated in one of the highest profile killings in the region since war broke out in 2014.

Alexander Zakharchenko, the president of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, was reported killed in an explosion in a café in Donetsk, the breakaway statelet’s capital, yesterday.

His death was confirmed by separatist officials and the SBU, Ukraine’s security service.

Zakharchenko suffered head injuries that were not survivable and died in hospital, Russian media reported. Two other ministers of the self-declared separatist government are also in hospital with severe injuries.

Zakharchenko, a former mining electrician, had run the DPR, one of two breakaway statelets sponsored and backed by Moscow, since 2014.

He is the most senior of a string of separatist field commanders and officials to suffer mysterious violent deaths since a 2015 peace deal slowed – but failed to end – the conflict.

Alexander Kazakov, an adviser to Zakharchenko, said the attack may have been carried out by the same people who murdered Arsen “Motorola” Pavlov and Mikhail “Givi” Tolstykh, field commanders who were assassinated in explosions in 2016 and 2017.

He called the blast a “terrorist attack” and said a device had been planted in the café “deliberately” and “in advance”.

Police and security forces in Donetsk detained several suspects in the immediate aftermath of the blast, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported, citing an

‘We are not excluding the possibility Russian law enforcement attempted to eliminate a notorious figure’

unidentified source familiar with the situation. The source claimed the detainees were Ukrainian “saboteurs”.

Russian officials also accused Ukraine of carrying out the assassination.

“We have every reason to believe that the regime in Kiev is behind his murder,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday. “Kiev’s war party is carrying out a terrorist scenario, worsening the situation in a region that is complicated enough,” she added.

Ukraine has denied having any involvement in the incident. Olena Gitlyanska, an SBU spokesman, attributed the attack to “internal conflicts” within the region.

Igor Guskov, the SBU head’s chief of staff, said on Ukrainian television that he believed Russia may have been involved in the killing.

“We are not excluding the possibility of Russian law enforcement services attempting to eliminate a notorious figure which, according to our information, was getting in the way and became redundant,” Mr Guskov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Zakharchenko, 42, became the leader of the DPR after fighting against Ukrainian government forces in the war that broke out four years ago.

He was named the head of the breakaway region after winning by a landslide in a controversial election, condemned by the European Union as “illegal and illegitimate”.

Prior to that he was the head of the “cabinet” of the region.

Russian-backed security forces put Donetsk on lockdown yesterday evening and blocked all movement into and out of the self-proclaimed republic, as they continued a manhunt for suspected perpetrators.

An emergency session of the government was summoned to select an acting head of the statelet.