Cafe blast kills pro-Moscow rebel leader in EUkraine

Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the independence-seeking insurgents in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, was killed on Friday in an explosion, local media reported.

The Ukrainian online media outlet Strana.ua, citing its sources, said Zakharchenko’s car blew up near a restaurant in Donetsk city.

The spokeswoman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Olena Gitlyanska, in an interview to Interfax-Ukraine news agency, confirmed that Zakharchenko is dead.

“Regarding the death of Zakharchenko– this is true. The SBU considers this a consequence of infighting, which has been long underway between the terrorists,” Gitlyanska was quoted as saying.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she has every reason to believe that Kiev was behind Zakharchenko’s murder, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

In a telegram of condolences released by the Kremlin, Putin praised Zakharchenko as a true popular leader and a patriot.

An ambulance drives through a cordon near a cafe, where Alexander Zakharchenko was killed, in Donetsk, August 31, 2018. /Reuters Photo

“The dastardly killing of Alexander Zakharchenko is further evidence: those who have chosen the path of terror, violence and spreading fear do not want to seek a peaceful political solution to the conflict,” he said. He did not say who these people were.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the state body that handles major crimes, said it was treating the killing as an act of international terrorism.

Zakharchenko, 42, was the self-styled “president” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. He was elected in November 2014 during “presidential elections,” which were held in the insurgent-controlled areas in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions amid harsh criticisms from Kiev.

Since April 2014, the insurgents in eastern Ukraine have been involved in the armed confrontation with Ukrainian government troops. The fighting claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people so far.

(CGTN)