Russian-backed separatist Zakharchenko killed in Donetsk blast

The head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s
Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, was killed on Friday, Aug. 31, multiple sources
have confirmed. He died in an explosion in Donetsk’s Café, which suffered
extensive damage in the blast. The “Finance Minister” Alexander Timofeyev was
injured and hospitalized. Local enemies, the Kremlin, and the Ukrainian and
American governments have all been blamed for the attack.

James Hydzik: No matter
who actually killed Zakharchenko, his death is already being used by
politicians on both sides of the line of contact. However, the most important
reaction comes from the Russian government. Interfax reports that Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that he will not attend the next scheduled
Minsk Agreement meeting, as the assassination proves Kyiv’s ill will. Interfax
also writes that President Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that
the death will increase tension in the region and “does not help the forming of
an appropriate environment” in regard to Minsk Accord implementation, and that
the incident is a provocation.

Time will tell how soon Russia returns to the
negotiating table. However, we do not see this as an unexpected turn of events,
given that Zakharchenko had survived previous attempts on his live. The timing
of his death, given other events (see more politics today), can be interpreted
as the beginning of a cycle of “asymmetric response”, but given the beginning
of Ukraine’s election cycle, a trigger-event was only a matter of time.