[h=3]Ukraine Cedes Donetsk Airport to Rebels as War Rages on[/h]
Ukrainian officials acknowledged on Thursday that they had relinquished to rebel forces control over the terminal of the airport in Donetsk, while artillery fire gutted a trolley bus in the embattled city, killing at least eight people, and evidence emerged of a growing Russian military role in the area.
The airport, the scene of fierce battles in recent days, is nonfunctional, the terminal and runways having been destroyed months ago. Nonetheless, it has retained high symbolic value in the ongoing hostilities as the government’s last toehold in the city, the largest in the contested territory of southeastern Ukraine.
At a news briefing in Kiev on Thursday, a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladyslav Seleznyov, said that 6 soldiers had died in the fighting over the airport and 16 had been captured by forces of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic before a decision was made to withdraw from the ruined terminal.
“Because of the constant shelling, the new terminal has been ruined almost entirely,” Mr. Seleznyov said. “Because this building has been destroyed completely, the decision was made to withdraw Ukrainian fighters from this building to new lines.”
Ukrainian officials acknowledged on Thursday that they had relinquished to rebel forces control over the terminal of the airport in Donetsk, while artillery fire gutted a trolley bus in the embattled city, killing at least eight people, and evidence emerged of a growing Russian military role in the area.
The airport, the scene of fierce battles in recent days, is nonfunctional, the terminal and runways having been destroyed months ago. Nonetheless, it has retained high symbolic value in the ongoing hostilities as the government’s last toehold in the city, the largest in the contested territory of southeastern Ukraine.
At a news briefing in Kiev on Thursday, a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladyslav Seleznyov, said that 6 soldiers had died in the fighting over the airport and 16 had been captured by forces of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic before a decision was made to withdraw from the ruined terminal.
“Because of the constant shelling, the new terminal has been ruined almost entirely,” Mr. Seleznyov said. “Because this building has been destroyed completely, the decision was made to withdraw Ukrainian fighters from this building to new lines.”
