Alexander Zakharchenko

Aleksander Zakharchenko in 2014

Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko (26 June 1976 – 31 August 2018) was a Ukrainian separatist leader who was the head of state and Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, a self-proclaimed state and rebel group which declared independence from Ukraine on 11 May 2014. Zakharchenko was killed in 2018 when a bomb exploded in a café that he frequently visited.

Quotes

• After all, the Cuban people, together with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other leaders, fought for the same thing we are fighting for in Donbass - the right to decide their own fate. And the Cuban people won, even though all the combined forces of the West were against them. Just as they are against us now. That's why Fidel was important to us. That's why we thought and remembered him. [...] And also Fidel Castro was an example for us that he fought for an idea, not for power, oil or money. [...] The very ideas that the Cuban people stood up for are close to us and we understand them. These are the ideas that are now written on our banners: Freedom, Justice, Conscience, Equality. These are the ideas for which one must fight and for which one can die.
  • «Фидель Кастро и дело, за которое он боролся, были очень важны для Донбасса», — Глава ДНР, News Front, 27 November 2016

• Soviets, as a way of governing, have not lost their relevance even now.
  • Глава ДНР об идеологии в программе «В ответе за Республику», Ombudsmandnr, 24 November 2015

• The USSR is the country in which we grew up, in which we lived, in which most of us were happy. [...] It is what we all came from. It is love for the Motherland, it is respect for the army, it is upbringing, it is care for the elderly, for children. [...] It is free medicine, free education - the best in the world. America and Europe used our methods and formed their teaching methods from our experience.
  • Глава ДНР об идеологии в программе «В ответе за Республику», Ombudsmandnr, 24 November 2015

• We have no right to forget the good things of the USSR.
  • Глава ДНР об идеологии в программе «В ответе за Республику», Ombudsmandnr, 24 November 2015

• Many people think of the USSR as an empire, but we think of it as our homeland. [...] Sooner or later we will come to the logical conclusion and build the country we dream of.
  • Захарченко: Возвращение Крыма России — начало возрождения СССР, 24 April 2015

• [Talking about the War in Donbass] Unfortunately, today the world, saved at the cost of millions of lives, is once again being invaded by Nazis. In neighbouring Ukraine, elderly Nazi collaborators and their heirs are marching through towns and villages. The great Victory Banner, which proudly flew over the Reichstag, is banned. We will not allow it in our country; we will always remember and cherish the truth about the great victory. And we must convey this truth to our children and grandchildren.
  • Парад в честь Дня Победы в Донецке: репортаж ЕADaily, 9 May 2016

• Why are we fighting, what do we want to see next, what kind of future are we building? [...] These were ideas of freedom, conscience, justice, equality. These are the things I have on my heart right now, the things I think about, and I think these ideas are shared by the majority of our fellow citizens.
  • Глава ДНР об идеологии в программе «В ответе за Республику», Ombudsmandnr, 24 November 2015

• The entire Donbas militia was ideologically motivated. That is why we are winning. Ideological motivation gives us that quality which overcomes the mechanical advantage of the enemy.
  • «Фидель Кастро и дело, за которое он боролся, были очень важны для Донбасса», — Глава ДНР, News Front, 27 November 2016