Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Ukraine unrest: Dozens die as Donetsk airport retaken


The BBC's Mark Lowen witnessed the battle at Donetsk airport, and returned on Tuesday to examine the bloody aftermath

Ukraine's interior ministry says the military is now in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of bloody clashes.
More than 30 pro-Russia separatists were reported killed after an attempt to seize the airport early on Monday.
New President Petro Poroshenko vowed to tackle the eastern uprising within hours not months. Russia has called for an immediate end to military action.
Meanwhile, the OSCE says it has lost contact with a monitoring team.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said four of its monitors were on a routine mission east of Donetsk when they were stopped at a checkpoint on Monday. They have not been heard from since 18:00 (16:00 GMT) that day.
A spokesman told the BBC the monitors, all male, were Turkish, Swiss, Estonian and Danish. Danish trade minister Mogens Jensen said it was believed they were being held by armed separatists.
In April, seven international military observers linked to the OSCE were held captive in eastern Ukraine for a week.
Pro-Russia militants, Donetsk airport, 26 May
Pro-Russia militants tried to take over the airport early on Monday morning
Residents build a sandbag shooting position on the road to the airport in Donetsk (27 May 2014)
Local people helped build shooting positions on the road to the airport.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement on Tuesday: "The airport is under our full control. The enemy suffered heavy losses. We have none."
He said operations were still continuing. Sporadic gun and artillery fire could be heard into the afternoon.
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At the scene: Mark Lowen in Donetsk
The Kiev government was absolutely determined that the airport would not fall to the insurgents.
Back in February when pro-Russia separatists launched their incursion in Crimea - which led to Moscow's annexation of the peninsula a month later - the airport was the first key installation they took control of, so Kiev was committed to clamping down on that.
Ukraine's new president gave a speech on Monday saying he would not negotiate with "terrorists" as he put it - and clearly you see the impact of that around Donetsk airport.
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A local coroner told the BBC he had seen 37 bodies, among them two civilians.
Photographs from inside Donetsk morgue showed more than a dozen bodies in military fatigues piled in a small room.
A representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic separatists said at least 30 of their injured fighters had died when a truck which was taking them to hospital came under fire from government troops.
Mark Lowen reports from the ground in Donetsk during Monday's fighting at the city's airport
Other reports of the death toll vary: Donetsk mayor Alexander Lukyanchenko said 40 people had been killed in the past day, while other rebel leaders said the final toll could rise above 100.
President's vow
The clashes started early on Monday as separatists stormed the Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk airport.
The Ukrainian military responded quickly with air strikes and an assault by heavily armed troops.
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Pro-Russia militants, Donetsk airport, 26 May
The separatists may have been trying to prevent a visit by the new president
Amateur footage showed Donetsk's ice arena after it was set on fire
The attempt to seize the airport may have been intended to prevent Mr Poroshenko from travelling there after he said his first trip would be to visit the restive east.
Mr Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire and former foreign minister, was on Monday formally declared the winner of Sunday's presidential election.
He vowed east Ukraine would not be "turned into Somalia", adding: "The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours."
Petro Poroshenko: "We will fight for the trust of the people" of the east
However, he has also said he wants to talk to Russia to end the crisis.
Moscow had said it would accept the election results and engage in dialogue with the winner.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that a visit to Russia by Mr Poroshenko was "not being considered".
He again called on Mr Poroshenko to stop military operations in eastern Ukraine immediately and implement a roadmap for peace negotiated in Geneva on 17 April.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, he said a "real war" was under way in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The regions declared independence after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in the wake of the removal of Ukraine's pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych.
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