Ukraine: Rebel leader resigns; militants shoot down fighter plane

By Nick Paton Walsh, Jason Hanna and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

updated 5:49 PM EDT, Thu August 7, 2014

Smoke billows from a Ukranian fighter jet crash near the village of Zhdanivka, Ukraine, on Thursday, August 7. Ukrainian government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists near the Russian border.

Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) -- A prominent leader of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine resigned his post Thursday as fighting flared there, with militants reportedly downing a Ukrainian military plane.

Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told reporters he was stepping down and handing over power to Alexander Zakharchenko, a little-known militia commander.

As Ukrainian forces rapidly advance toward the key rebel-controlled city and Russia builds up forces along the border, the sudden resignation leaves a number of questions about the volatile region's future unanswered: What does it mean? Are militants disbanding and vanishing into the night? Is there a brutal battle ahead?

Borodai, a Russian citizen who rose to power as pro-Russian rebels took portions of eastern Ukraine earlier this year, was a prominent public face for the separatists after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed last month.

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He gave little reason for his resignation Thursday, other than saying he considered the job of founding the republic to be finished and that it was time for a Ukrainian to take the reins.

The announcement came after days of assault on rebel positions near Donetsk by Ukrainian forces. Shelling in the Donetsk area, which could be heard periodically in and around the city, killed four civilians and injured 18 others on Thursday, local officials said.

About 25 miles to the northeast, rebels shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 near the town of Yenakievo on Thursday evening, Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said.

Initial information indicates that a missile from a Russian-made surface-to-air antiaircraft system, called Buk or SA-11, shot the plane, Seleznyov said. Information about the fate of the pilot wasn't immediately available.

That's the same type of missile system that U.S. and Ukrainian officials have alleged downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine last month, killing all 298 people on board.

U.S. officials have concluded the missile was fired from rebel-held territory. Rebel leaders and Russia, which Western nations have accused of supplying the rebels in the months-long fighting, deny involvement.

The ongoing fighting has killed close to 1,400 people -- civilians and combatants -- and more than 4,000 people have been wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, according to U.N. officials. The battles also have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and seek shelter either elsewhere in Ukraine or across the border in Russia.