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Senior insurgent commander killed in E. Ukraine blast

Xinhua, October 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

A senior military commander of independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine was killed late Sunday in an explosion in Donetsk, according to local media reports.

Arseny Pavlov, 33, nicknamed "Motorola", was killed when an improvised explosive device went off in the elevator of his apartment building, said the insurgent-run DAN news agency.

Denis Pushilin, the self-styled parliament speaker of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, accused the Ukrainian government of being behind the incident.

"Through this murder, the Ukrainian side hopes to shatter the situation in the republic," Pushilin was quoted by the DAN as saying.

Meanwhile, Artem Shevchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, has confirmed the death of Pavlov while denying any involvement of Kiev in the case.

"Arseny 'Motorola' Pavlov was eliminated. Probably, it was done by his accomplices," Shevchenko wrote on Facebook.

Pavlov was the commander of Sparta Battalion, an armed group fighting against the Ukrainian government.

Pavlov is the highest-ranking insurgent commander that has been killed since the death of Alexey Mozgovoy, a commander of the Prizrak Brigade, in May 2015.

The death of Mozgovoy has led to an escalation of hostilities in eastern Ukraine conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than 9,600 people since it started in April 2014. Endi