{"id":13633,"date":"2018-09-02T19:23:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T19:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13633"},"modified":"2018-09-02T19:23:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T19:23:49","slug":"tens-of-thousands-gather-for-funeral-of-ukrainian-rebel-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13633","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands gather for funeral of Ukrainian rebel leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Ukraine’s rebel stronghold Donetsk on Sunday to mourn the killing of separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mourners queued to view the flag-draped coffin of the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at a local theatre.<\/p>\n

Zakharchenko died in a blast at a coffee shop<\/a> in Donetsk on Friday. His bodyguard was also killed and 12 more people were wounded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was the most prominent figure from the Russia-backed side to be killed in Ukraine’s four-year conflict. Zakharchenko<\/span>\u00a0had been wounded twice in combat and survived a car bomb in August 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

Authorities estimated the turnout for the funeral was about 100,000 people, while a correspondent from AFP news agency put the number closer to 30,000.<\/p>\n

Donetsk’s\u00a0<\/span>city centre was cordoned off and public transport temporarily suspended as people gathered to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

Billboards displayed pictures of Zakharchenko and his quotes, including “All of us have one Motherland – Russia.”<\/p>\n

Russia<\/a> accused Ukraine of assassinating the 42-year-old, but Kiev blamed the explosion on separatist infighting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many mourners pointed a finger at Ukraine’s government for being behind the attack. “We will never forget this tragedy, we will never forgive,” said Sergei Kapustin, 35.<\/p>\n

‘A cool guy’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Anatoly Bibilov,<\/span>\u00a0leader of Georgia’s breakaway region South Ossetia<\/a>, and Alexander Borodai, a Russian journalist and former prime minister of the Donetsk republic, were in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vladislav Surkov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>, issued a statement carried by Donetsk’s official news agency calling Zakharchenko a “brother”.<\/p>\n

“You are a cool guy, a true hero and it’s a huge honour to be your friend,” it read.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mourners queued in Donetsk to pay respects to Zakharchenko, described as ‘a true hero’ [Alexander Ermochenko\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Zakharchenko, a former coal mine electrician,\u00a0joined pro-Russian separatists in an armed uprising in Donetsk in 2014 and sold his business to help fund the movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

He took the reins as the leader of the\u00a0Donetsk People’s Republic in November 2014\u00a0<\/span>from a number of Russians, in a bid to show Ukraine’s separatist movement wasn’t a Russian-led operation.<\/p>\n

Other rebel leaders say he was handpicked for the role by Moscow. A vote held by separatists confirmed him in office.<\/p>\n

Zakharchenko introduced Soviet-style military parades with tanks in Donetsk and usually wore military fatigues despite his political role.<\/p>\n

Ongoing conflict<\/h2>\n

Putin called his death a “dastardly” crime aimed at destabilising a fragile regional peace.<\/p>\n

“I expect that the organisers and executors of this crime will get the deserved punishment,” he said in a telegram of condolences released by the Kremlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Zakharchenko’s murder would derail long-delayed international peace talks on Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany are involved in the talks, known as the Normandy format, which was established to seek a peaceful settlement to the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 10,000 people have been killed since rebels in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions overthrew Ukrainian central rule in April 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A shaky internationally brokered ceasefire has been in force since 2015, halting large-scale fighting. But there are still frequent firefights on the front line between separatists and Ukrainian forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kiev and its Western allies have accused Russia of sending troops and arms into Ukraine. Moscow denies the allegations but has admitted Russian “volunteers” are assisting the rebels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Ukraine’s rebel stronghold Donetsk on Sunday to mourn the killing of separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko. Mourners queued to view the flag-draped coffin of the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at a local theatre. Zakharchenko died in a blast at a coffee shop in Donetsk on Friday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}