The killing of the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic is a provocation and is leading to higher tensions in the region, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said.

"The death of Zakharchenko is undoubtedly leading to higher tensions in the region, which, of course, does not help the forming of an appropriate environment for moving at least to some prospects that the Minsk agreements' implementation will begin," Peskov told reporters.

"There is no doubt that this is a provocation," Peskov said.