Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region say a member of their legislative body and an aide have been shot dead.
Andrei Purgin, the senior member of the separatist legislature in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said on March 27 that Roman Voznik and an aide were killed late on March 26 in the rebel-controlled provincial capital, Donetsk.
Voznik was also commander of a rebel battalion called Mirazh (Mirage).
Another separatist leader, Aleksandr Kofman, said the two men were shot dead at around 11:00 p.m. in a car.
Purgin said it was "too early to draw conclusions" about who killed them.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in a conflict between government forces and the rebels, who hold parts of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
Fighting has eased under a cease-fire agreement signed in February, but prospects for a settlement are clouded by disputes over the European-brokered deal.