Leader of Ukraine rebels sworn in
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THE leader of rebels in eastern Ukraine was sworn in yesterday as head of a self-declared secessionist territory, following an election condemned by Kiev and the West as illegal and destabilizing.
Alexander Zakharchenko, 38, was inaugurated in a theater in the main stronghold of a rebel-controlled territory that separatists call the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Ukraine and Western governments say Sunday’s poll endangered a much-violated cease-fire agreed upon in September that envisioned local elections across the east but under Ukrainian law. Russia, however, quickly lent its support to the vote.
Zakharchenko took the stage after four sabre-wielding Cossacks carried in the flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic. He swore the oath of office with his hand on a Bible before an audience that included men in combat fatigues with automatic rifles.
Lawmakers from Russia and Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia later mounted the stage.
Russian lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlev declared: “Russia doesn’t give up on its own.”
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