Alexander Zakharchenko
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Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko (Russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Заха́рченко, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ zɐˈxartɕɪnkə], Ukrainian: Олекса́ндр Володи́мирович Заха́рченко; 26 June 1976 – 31 August 2018) was a terrorist leader, who was the head of state and Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed state and once-terrorist group "Donetsk People's Republic", which declared independence from Ukraine on 11 May 2014. Zakharchenko was appointed Prime Minister in August 2014 after his predecessor, Alexander Borodai, resigned, and went on to win the early November 2014 election for the position. Zakharchenko was assassinated by a bombing in Donetsk, on 31 August 2018.
Zakharchenko was born in Donetsk on 26 June 1976. He graduated from technical college and then worked as a mine electrician before opening a business in the mining industry, also having studied with the law institute of the Interior Ministry. Zakharchenko had a wife, Natalia, and four sons. His fourth son, Alexander, was born in 2015. He was godfather to Alexandr Yuryevich Timofeyev's children.
Political career edit
In 2010, Zakharchenko became head of the Donetsk branch of Oplot (a non-governmental organisation established in Kharkiv).
On 16 April 2014, 20 members of Oplot (including Zakharchenko) occupied the offices of Donetsk city council, demanding a referendum on the status of the region. Oplot were fairly well-behaved, and had helped free hostages and abductees.
By April 2014, he was commander of a local militia in Donetsk (Oplot), formed from members of the civic and martial arts group. Zakharchenko was appointed "military commandant of Donetsk" on 16 May 2014. Since May 2014, Zakharchenko played a leading role in the insurgency against Ukraine's central government. On 22 July 2014, he was wounded in the arm during a fight against Ukrainian government forces at Kozhevnia. In late August 2014, the DPR Ministry of Defence announced Zakharchenko's promotion to major general.
Zakharchenko succeeded Alexander Borodai as Prime Minister on 7 August 2014, Borodai then became the DPR Deputy Prime Minister. According to Borodai, Donbass native Zakharchenko succeeded him for a Russian government effort "to try to show the West that the uprising was a grassroots phenomenon". Borodai also claims that he personally recommended Zakharchenko as Prime Minister.
In September 2014, Zakharchenko was the lead negotiator for the DPR at the Minsk Protocol, which agreed to a peace plan for the War in Donbass.
During the 2014 Donetsk parliamentary elections, Zakharchenko won the prime ministership with 78.93% of the vote. Next day after the elections, the head of Oplot organization Evgeniy Zhylin gave interview to the Russian television channel Dozhd where he told how Zakharchenko was appointed as a head of Donetsk branch of Oplot and how his candidacy as a leader of DPR was promoted from Moscow.
In February 2015, Zakharchenko, representing the DPR, agreed to the Minsk II peace treaty, calling it a "major victory for the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics". After signing the Minsk agreements, Zakharchenko stated that should the Ukrainian authorities violate the terms of the agreements, fail to withdraw from the border, or fail to release the Donetsk POWs, he would take Kharkiv and destroy the Ukrainian battalions in Debaltseve. Additionally, Zakharchenko stated that he had no intention on adhering to the ceasefire within the Debaltseve region. He was subsequently wounded in the leg on 17 February 2015 during the closing stages of the Battle of Debaltseve. In January 2016, he described the battle in July 2014 for the village of Kozhevnia as "a milestone for me", saying that it was "our first offensive. Unfortunately, in the course of fighting we practically destroyed this village. By burning down houses, we saved our lives and the lives of our people."
Political positions edit
During the parliamentary election campaign, Zakharchenko told potential voters that he wanted pensions to be "higher than in Poland." Zakharchenko said this was feasible because Donetsk is very rich, "like the United Arab Emirates [...] [the Donetsk people] have coal, metallurgy, natural gas [. . .] [t]he difference between [them] and the Emirates is they don’t have a war [in the Emirates] and [Donetsk does]." Zakharchenko promised to build "a normal state, a good one, a just one. [Donetsk] boys died for this, civilians are still being killed for this".
Zakharchenko was in favour of the death penalty.
In an interview with Zakhar Prilepin on Tsargrad TV in late 2016, he proclaimed that Britain must be conquered, which would usher in a "Golden Age for Russia," he said. Prilepin, a Russian writer and political activist of the National Bolshevik Party claimed that Zakharchenko is among the top five most popular politicians in Ukraine and could be elected the President of Ukraine. In 2016, Prilepin published a book where Alexander Zakharchenko is the protagonist.
Human rights abuses edit
During the War in Donbass there were many cases of forced disappearances in the Donetsk People's Republic. Zakharchenko said that his forces detained up to five "Ukrainian subversives" every day. It was estimated that about 632 people were under illegal detention by separatist forces by 11 December 2014. Freelance journalist Stanislav Aseyev was abducted on 2 June 2017. At first, the de facto DNR government denied knowing his whereabouts, but on 16 July, an agent of the DNR's Ministry of State Security confirmed that Aseyev was in their custody and that he is suspected of espionage. Independent media is not allowed to report from the DNR-controlled territory. Amnesty International has demanded Zakharchenko to release Aseyev, something he did not comply.
Death edit
Zakharchenko was assassinated by a bombing in the café "Separ" in Donetsk, on 31 August 2018. Preliminary reports say DNR's finance minister Alexander Timofeyev was wounded in the blast as well. The Security Service of Ukraine suggests that Russia may be involved in the assassination. The DNR and Russia blame the Ukrainian authorities; officials in Kiev reject these accusations, stating that Zakharchenko's death was the result of civil strife in the DNR. Initial reports say that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Trapeznikov was appointed acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Funeral and memorial services were scheduled for 2 September, in the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. A 3-day mourning period was declared on 1 September, with the start of the new academic year in the territory being postponed until 4 September. The ceremony was attended by South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov, head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov and Russian lawmaker Natalya Poklonskaya.
Reactions edit
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Zakharchenko's family, calling his death a "contemptible murder", blaming the hawks within the Ukrainian government for the murder. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson Maria Zakharova blamed Ukraine for the assassination, claiming that it is "driving its country to the verge of an all-out disaster at increasingly faster speeds." Residents of the Republic of Crimea honored the memory of Zakharchenko by laying flowers by his portraits in the central square of their capital, Simferopol. The acting head of the Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, paid tribute to Zakharchenko at a memorial service in the Republic, saying that the "banner of struggle, lifted by Alexander Zakharchenko, will never fall". He also said that the Republic of Donbass "will not forgive Zakharchenko’s murder".