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
Here is another video from our sister network VOA, this time on how Ukrainian civilian hospitals are being inundated with war wounded:
!!! BREAKING !!!
The UN rights commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein says the death toll in Ukraine conflict now exceeds 5,358. She has urged all sides to halt the potentially "catastrophic" escalation.
More to follow...