DONETSK, October 17. /TASS/. The team of investigators looking into the murder of a militia commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Arsen Pavlov, has qualified his murder as an act of terrorism.

"The investigation and operational group of the interior ministry and the ministry for state security of the DPR considers that as an act of terrorism," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the interior ministry as saying.

Early findings point to a station of the Ukrainian secret services, operating in the republic, as the mastermind of the crime. The interior ministry’s press service said the composition of the explosive device and the design of the bomb that killed Pavlov were similar to those used in an attack on DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko in April of 2016.

Arsen Pavlov, known as Motorola, was killed late on Sunday, October 16, as an explosive device went off in a Donetsk residential house.

DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko said the murder was "a challenge to the entire republic." He put the blame for Pavlov’s death on Ukrainian intelligence services officers who, according to Zakharchenko, "are on the DPR territory illegally" and accused the Ukrainian president of "violating the truce."

On April 28, the DPR state security ministry disrupted an attempt of a subversive act aimed to eliminate Alexander Zakharchenko.

Operatives of the state security ministry detained a group of Ukrainian citizens who had arrived from the territories controlled by Kiev. They had with them a powerful explosive disguised as an interior design item.