According to this item from RFE/RL's news desk, Aleksandr Zakharchenko has been shooting his mouth off a little bit:
A senior leader of Russian-backed separatists has suggested Ukraine is led by "miserable" Jews, in an apparent anti-Semitic slur broadcast live on state television in Russia.
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, spoke at a press conference on February 2.
After an exchange about Cossacks and Jews, Zakharchenko said Ukraine's leaders were "miserable representatives of a great people" -- a remark whose context strongly indicated it was a reference to Jews.
"I can't remember a time when Cossacks were led by people who have never held a sword in their hands," Zakharchenko told the news conference in the rebel-held provincial capital of Donetsk, which was shown live on Russia's Rossiya-24 channel.
He said that 19th century Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and Taras Bulba, a fictional creation of author Nikolai Gogol, would "turn over in their graves if they could see who is running Ukraine."
Separatists and Russian officials have frequently branded Ukraine's pro-Western leaders as "fascists and neo-Nazis."
With reporting by AFP
Another bulletin from RFE/RL's news desk:
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says pro-Russian separatists are "probably responsible” for two recent rocket attacks that killed more than 40 civilians in eastern Ukraine.
In a February 3 statement, the New York-based group said its "on-the-ground investigation" indicated rebel forces fired unguided rockets that killed at least 12 civilians on a bus in the town of Volnovakha on January 13 and at a least 30 civilians in the Azov Sea coastal city of Mariupol on January 24.
HRW also says circumstances point to government forces’ responsibility for an unguided rocket attack in Donetsk that killed two civilians there on January 13.
It said it was unable to attribute responsibility for a January 22 attack in Donetsk that reportedly killed 13 civilians.
Fighting in the conflict that has killed more than 5,100 people since April intensified around January 10, after a relatively calm two-month period.
HRW said both sides have used "explosive weapons with wide-area effect in populated areas."