Alexander Zakharchenko : Over 120,000 people came to bid farewell to the assassinated leader.

Alexander Zakharchenko with children and the future

LONG LIVE ALEXANDER ZAKHARCHENO - SON OF THE PEOPLE OF DONETSK - HE WILL LIVE FOREVER IN THE MEMORY OF PEOPLE WHO STRUGGLE. 

US IMPERIALISM HAS ITS HERO IN BOMBER MCCAIN WE HAVE OUR WORKING CLASS HERO IN ALEXANDER ZAKHARCHENKO.

DONETSK (Sputnik - 02nd September, 2018) 

The farewell ceremony for the assassinated leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, has begun in the republic's capital Donetsk, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday

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The coffin with Zakharchenko's body has been put on display in the lobby of an opera and ballet theater in the city center, not far from cafe Separ where he was killed in a bomb blast on Friday.

A spokesperson for the city administration told Sputnik that over 120,000 people came to bid farewell to the assassinated leader.

"At the moment, according to the preliminary estimates, there are more than 120,000 people," the spokesperson said.




According to the correspondent, while nearly all of the square in front of the theater is already filled with people, residents keep coming to the ceremony and laying flowers near the cafe.

The ceremony was attended by DPR's Defense Minister Vladimir Kononov and the breakaway republic's acting leader, Dmitry Trapeznikov.

The DPR's foreign ministry told Sputnik that Russian, South Ossetian and Abkhaz delegations also arrived for the ceremony. They went to the theater to honor Zakharchenko's memory and then visited what was left of cafe Separ.

"Delegations from the Republic of South Ossetia, the Republic of Abkhazia and Russia visited the place where the DPR's leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, died and commemorated him with a moment of silence," the ministry's spokesperson said.

Zakharchenko's adviser Alexander Kazakov said on Saturday that the leader had been killed by a shell-less explosive device, which detonated when Zakharchenko entered the cafe. 

The blast also instantly killed Zakharchenko's bodyguard, who entered the cafe before the republic's leader, and injured a total of 11 people, according to the DPR authorities.

DPR's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Timofeev, who accompanied Zakharchenko to the cafe, sustained severe injuries but is already in a stable condition.





According to Trapeznikov, several suspects in the case have already been detained and admitted that the assassination was a "Ukrainian sabotage." 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said that there were almost no doubts that Ukraine was behind the assassination, however Kiev has denied any involvement in the murder.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed on Friday his condolences over the death of Zakharchenko.

He also expressed hope that organizers and perpetrators of the attack would be found and punished