The Russian-backed president of a separatist region in eastern Ukraine was wounded on Saturday in an assassination attempt, highlighting rising violence in the country’s east.
A bomb — the weapon of choice in a half-dozen recent, and mysterious, assassinations in the territory — tore apart a car carrying Igor Plotnitsky, leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
A political ally said on Twitter that Plotnitsky was seriously wounded, potentially creating an opening in the leadership in Luhansk, the smaller of the two separatist enclaves in Ukraine’s east. The bomb was detonated in Luhansk, the region’s capital.
Rebels blamed a Ukrainian death squad, while an aide to the Ukrainian Security Service director said Plotnitsky had fallen victim to infighting in his ranks.
Fighting between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian government forces since April 2014 has resulted in thousands of deaths, the displacement of more than 1 million people, and de facto Russian control of the region.
However, feuding between proxy forces fighting on the Russian side has for more than a year now threatened to spiral into wider-scale violence, deepening an already grave humanitarian situation and possibly complicating matters for Russian President Vladimir Putin in negotiations with the West.
When the rebellion erupted in 2014, the Luhansk region was principally controlled by Don Cossacks, the onetime horsemen of the southern steppe who have fought on the Russian side, but have also tried to carve out their own republics from the chaos in Ukraine.
The Cossacks are loyal to Russia, but have for centuries dreamed of forming an autonomous state.
Cossack republics were declared in the Luhansk region, in three small towns, where traditional Cossack rule including punishment by public whipping was established.
Starting in spring last year, Plotnitsky had tried to bring them to heel, demanding the Cossack units incorporate into the Russian-controlled rebel military.
Two prominent Cossack leaders, Alexei Mozgovoy and Pavel Dryomov, were assassinated in car bombings last year, infuriating their followers.
Dryomov had posted a video on YouTube, addressed to Putin, that criticized Plotnitsky for trading coal with the enemy in government-controlled Ukraine and demanded his ouster.
Estimates of the number of casualties in the fighting between the Don Cossacks and the Luhansk People’s Republic forces range from about 100, by the Cossacks’ estimate, to 200, according to Ukrainian law enforcement officials.
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