Ukraine government troops control Donetsk airport after bloodiest day of uprising as rebels prepare for assault on the city itself
A pro-Russian rebel mans a barricade on the road to Donetsk airport
By Roland Oliphant in Donetsk
The Telegraph
9:12PM BST 27 May 2014
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Comments Rebel separatist fighters in Donetsk were on Tuesday night readying for a major offensive by government forces on the city centre, as details began to emerge of Monday’s battle for the city’s airport that left dozens dead in the bloodiest day so far of the east Ukraine uprising.
Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, the mayor of Donetsk, said 38 fighters and two civilians died in the battle that left Ukrainian forces in control of the city’s airport and poised for a potential assault on the city itself. Rebel leaders claimed the death toll was as high as 100.
Mr Lukyanchenko said the dead included eight Russian citizens, including from Chechnya.
“The airport is under our full control,” said Arsen Avakov, the interior minister. “The enemy suffered heavy losses. We have none.”
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While confusion still surrounds the full details of the battle that raged throughout the day on Monday, it became clear on Tuesday that rebel forces suffered the worst single loss of life in the battle for the east of the country since fighting broke out in April, delivering the Ukrainian military its first decisive victory of the conflict.
Russia called on Kiev to stop “punitive actions” in the region and criticised the newly elected Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, for rejecting dialogue.
In his first public comments on Ukraine since Sunday’s election, Vladimir Putin called for “an immediate end to the military’s punitive operations in southeastern regions and the establishment of peaceful dialogue between Kiev and regional representatives,” the Kremlin said in a statement released following a telephone call with Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister.
Mr Poroshenko said following his election victory that he believed military action against the rebels could be completed “within hours”.
Barack Obama, the US president, on Tuesday called Mr Poroshenko to offer him “the full support of the United States”.
Mr Obama said the United States would assist Ukraine as Mr Poroshenko “seeks to unify and move his country forward,” the White House said.
While the number of casualties put forward by Mr Lukanchenko could not be independently confirmed, the bodies of at least 33 rebel fighters were piled up at one morgue in the city yesterday afternoon, as local police and forensic teams went through the motions of establishing cause of death.
“Their wounds vary. Some were clearly caught in an explosion, some have shrapnel wounds, some gunshot wounds. All the 33 are Donetsk Republic fighters,” said Sergei Khokholya, a detective working at the morgue.
The detective said the 33 were only those who had been identified, suggesting that the death count could grow. “It is possible there are still bodies in or around the airport that have not been recovered,” he added.
Leonid Baranov of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic said up to 100 rebels were killed in the fighting.
Other rebel officials from the Donetsk People’s Republic claimed many of the dead had been wounded fighters travelling away from the airport when their trucks were attacked on Monday evening. The claim could not be independently verified.
“European countries need to bring the Ukrainian government to justice for violating international agreements. It is illegal under the Geneva convention to kill the wounded,” said Ivan Novokovsky, a deputy in the parliament of the Rebel Donetsk People’s Republic.
Attempts to establish a final casualty figure were stymied by visibly shaken rebel fighters standing guard at central hospitals, apparently worried that Ukrainian forces might plan to take the wounded.
“Yes, they’re our guys,” one said before asking journalists to leave the central trauma unit. “Please, just get out of here.”
Ukrainian officials said their forces had taken full control of the airport after the battle, although sporadic fighting, including automatic weapons fire and occasional explosions, continued on Tuesday afternoon.
“What you are hearing are attempts by terrorists to retake the airport, but it is entirely under our control,” said a military official who asked not to be named. “We took no losses. The antiterrorist operation will continue.” Neither rebel fighters nor the political leadership showed any signs of leaving Donetsk yesterday, but what appears to have been the first decisive victory for the Ukrainians has created a sense that they are now very much on the defensive.
Fighters took advantage of a lull in the fighting yesterday afternoon to fortify the city, using heavy lorries loaded with sand to block the main road from the airport in expectation of a Ukraine push into the centre.
At the rebel headquarters in the centre of Donetsk, leaders including Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the republic’s assembly, Pavel Gubarev, the “people’s governor,” and Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister, attended a session of the republic’s parliament in a public appearance that seemed at least in part intended to reassure the public that they had not fled.
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