Thousands mourn killed Ukraine separatist ‘hero’

Tens of thousands of mourners thronged the streets in Ukraine’s rebel stronghold of Donetsk yesterday to pay their final respects to an assassinated separatist leader, who was praised as a “brother” and a “hero” by an aide of Vladimir Putin.

Crowds clapped and shouted “spasibo” (thank you) as the flagdraped casket of Alexander Zakharchenko, the 42-year-old chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who died in a café bombing on Friday, was driven through the streets en route to a cemetery.