MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) The ceremony of paying respects to assassinated leader of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, will be held on Monday, Alexander Kazakov, the adviser to the late DPR head, told Sputnik on Friday.
"Last respects to Alexander Vladimirovich will be paid on Monday, the time [of the ceremony] will be set today," Kazakov said.
The official added that the beginning of the new school year, which was slated for Monday, would be put off to Tuesday in the DPR due the murder of Zakharchenko.
Zakharchenko was killed in a staged bomb blast in a cafe in downtown Donetsk earlier in the day. DPR Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Timofeev, who accompanied Zakharchenko, is in grave condition in a hospital.
The Russian Foreign Ministry and DPR officials said that Kiev was behind the assassination. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), in its turn, said it was not involved in the murder.
The DPR and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), located in the Ukrainian eastern Donetsk region, proclaimed their independence from Ukraine in 2014 after the new government came to power in Kiev following what many consider to be an overthrow. The Ukrainian authorities have since been waging an operation in Donbass.
Violence between the Kiev forces and the Donbas republics continues despite attempts to settle the military conflict.
