“There is every reason to believe” that the Kiev regime is behind the murder of the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said today.

“The head of the DPR, Zakharchenko, was killed in Donetsk during a terrorist attack,” she told reporters. According to her, Kiev “ more than once used similar methods of eliminating dissidents and undesirables.” Zakharova suggested that the Ukrainian authorities had begun to implement a terrorist scenario, and called on the international community to give an adequate assessment of what happened. “Having failed to fulfill the promise of peace, they apparently decided to move on to a bloodbath,” noted the Foreign Ministry representative.

The head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, died on the evening of Friday, August 31, after an explosion near the Separ cafe in the very center of Donetsk. The Minister of Finance of the self-proclaimed republic, Alexander Timofeev, was hospitalized with a serious injury.

The DPR security forces accused Ukraine of organizing the terrorist attack and have already announced the detention of “Ukrainian saboteurs.” The head of the staff of the SBU of Ukraine, Igor Guskov, linked Zakharchenko’s death with “redistribution of business” or attempts by Russian intelligence services to “eliminate an odious figure.” Former director of the Russian FSB Nikolai Kovalev told Interfax that he has no doubt that “the final customer is the state of Ukraine.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry admitted Kyiv's involvement in the murder of Zakharchenko