Assassination Attempt Sends Ukrainian Rebel Figurehead to Russian Hospital

KYIV, Ukraine — A separatist figurehead from eastern Ukraine is unconscious and being treated in a Russian hospital after gunmen opened fire on his SUV, sending it crashing into a concrete pillar, according to local reports.

The attack on Pavel Gubarev, 31, comes as factions within the separatist group vie ahead of self-organized elections on Nov. 2 to decide on the new leadership of their fledgling quasi-states.

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Kyiv has said it will not recognize the vote set to be held in several separatist-controlled cities throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The government will hold its own national parliamentary elections a week earlier, on Oct. 26.

Unknown assailants ambushed Gubarev’s vehicle as he and other pro-Russian rebels were traveling through the war-torn Donetsk region near the border with Russia, en route from Rostov-on-Don late Sunday, his wife, Ekaterina, wrote on Facebook.

Gubarev’s driver lost control of the vehicle, which then crashed into a concrete pillar, leaving the separatist commander unconscious and with a cerebral edema, Ekaterina said. Other passengers reportedly made it out unscathed. She said her husband did not suffer any gunshot wounds and was expected to regain consciousness at “any moment.”

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the apparent assassination attempt, but separatist websites placed the blame on Ukrainian forces operating in the region. Kyiv did not release a statement on the matter and Mashable could not reach an official for comment.

Hours before the incident, Gubarev posted a message on Facebook saying he would make “a very important statement” on Monday.

Recently he had been caught up in a power struggle over next month’s elections. Last week, the electoral commission of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic banned his party, “Novorossiya,” meaning New Russia, from participating.

Gubarev, a former advertising agent with a penchant for dressing up like Santa Claus and making cameo appearances in bizarre propaganda videos, shot to fame at the beginning of the separatist uprising in February, when he proclaimed himself “people’s governor” of Donetsk and led protesters in storming government buildings in the predominately Russian-speaking eastern metropolis.

Soon after, Ukrainian forces arrested Gubarev before releasing him in May in a prisoner exchange. While in jail, he was replaced by another local, Denis Pushilin, who first became prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic before being bumped to chairman after Alexander Borodai, a Russian citizen, replaced him.

Since then, Gubarev has enjoyed much less power in Donetsk, moving from a leadership role to one of a commander in the separatists’ “Novorossiya Armed Forces.” He was closely aligned with the onetime top commander and defense minister of the separatists, the Russian Igor Girkin, who is better known by his nom de guerre Igor Strelkov, meaning “Shooter,” before he was also dismissed and returned to Moscow.

Gubarev had kept a relatively low profile before the attack. But political infighting and rivalries are ubiquitous in the separatist-controlled regions. The attempt on his life is only the most recent event underscoring the lawlessness that plagues the self-styled people’s republics.

On June 2, there was a failed attempt on Gubarev’s life, when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at his ninth-floor office in central Donetsk.

Less than a week later, on June 7, an assassination attempt was made against Pushilin. A second attempt on Pushilin occurred on June 12. He survived the attacks, but one of his assistants was shot dead in the first attack, and two others were killed when a car bomb exploded in the second.

In all three cases, the assailants were never caught, and Donetsk with rife with rumors that the leaders’ rivals were behind the attacks.

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