International desk: A leader of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Alexander Zakharchenko, has been killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk city.
“The head of the DNR [Donetsk People's Republic]… has died as the result of a terrorist attack,” Zakharchenko's spokeswoman told AFP news agency.
Russia's foreign ministry said it suspected Ukraine of organising the latest killing. The Ukrainian government has denied any involvement.
Some observers have attributed previous deaths of rebel leaders in Donetsk to infighting among the rebels, or moves by Moscow to eliminate inconvenient separatist leaders.
What are the two sides saying?
Rebel and Russian news reports say the separatists' “finance minister” Alexander Timofeyev was wounded in the blast at the Separ cafe that killed Zakharchenko.
Ukrainians suspected of being behind the blast were arrested nearby, a security source was quoted as saying.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “there is every reason to believe that the Kiev regime is behind the murder”.
She said the Kiev “party of war” was “violating its pledges about peace and has decided on a bloodbath”.
However, recent reports suggested that Zakharchenko had fallen out of favour with Russia. A spokeswoman for Ukraine's state security service, Yelena Gitlyanskaya, rejected Moscow's accusations, reports BBC.
She said the killing was a result of “internal fighting… between the terrorists and their Russian sponsors”.
