MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. Russia calls on the Ukrainian authorities to give up the use of terrorist methods as an instrument for the solution of their country’s domestic problems, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement circulated on Friday.
"We urge the Kiev authorities to give up the staking on terrorist methods for resolution of Ukraine’s domestic problems," it said. "We hope the Ukrainian politicians with a sense of responsibility will summon their strength to bridle the ‘party of war’ and to avert an upsurge of confrontation in Donbass."
"It is clear already now that the terrorist act aimed to derail the process of peaceful political settlement of the situation in Donbass and practical steps on the Minsk accords," the ministry indicated. "All of this looks especially cynical against the background of the so-called ‘start-of-school ceasefire’ that has been just announced [in Donbass]."
"The assassination of one of the signatories of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements tallies well enough with the logic of resolution of the internal Ukrainian conflict through the use of force that is espoused by Kiev," the statement said.
"These actions pose a serious threat of destabilization in southeastern Ukraine," the ministry said.
Alexander Zakharchenko, who had been Prime Minister of the DPR since 2014, died in an explosion in Donetsk on Friday. He was 42 years old. The Administration of the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic confirmed reports on his death.
Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the DPR legislature called it "a yet another act of aggression on the part of Ukraine.".
