Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Ukraine's rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Sunday to pay their final respects to separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko, while an aide to the Russian president praised him as a "brother" and a "hero". Large crowds have waited in line to pay their respects to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who was killed along with his bodyguard in Friday’s attack. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday further four-way Ukraine talks, known as the Normandy format, were impossible after Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, died in an explosion at a cafe on Friday. “The latest developments in Eastern Ukraine do not call into question the obligations of the parties under the Minsk agreements, nor the relevance of the Normandy format meetings between Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine,” a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
Tens of thousands of people attend the funeral of Alexander Zakharchenko. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the murder was a provocation and that it would derail the stalled Normandy format peace process.