CREDIT: REUTERS/ARMY.SOS/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Aerial footage shot by a drone and posted to a social media website on Friday (January 16) purports to show terminal buildings and other structures at Donetsk International Airport in a state of complete destruction after months of conflict there.
Army.SOS, a Ukrainian group that supports the army by buying ammunition, food and supplies for soldiers, said the video was shot on January 15, but neither the video’s authenticity, nor the date it was shot could be independently verified by Reuters.
Government troops and pro-Russian separatist fighters have been locked in battle at the airport for months.
Government troops have a tenuous grip on the complex, which includes a multi-storey control tower and extensive outbuildings, but is now only a battered shell after nine months of conflict.
Its cratered runways mean it has not functioned for months as an airport. But it has symbolic value for both sides and has become the main flashpoint in the fighting even as prospects for a new round of peace talks dimmed.
The airport was fully renovated in 2012 in time to host the European soccer championships inUkraine and Poland, but much of it has now been destroyed.
Fighting raged on Saturday at the main airport of Ukraine’s city of Donetsk as separatists resumed attempts to break the tenuous grip of government forces on the complex and Kiev’s military said three more Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.
With attempts to restart peace talks stalled, pro-Russian rebels have stepped up shelling attacks to break the resistance of government troops dug in at the airport, itself a wrecked hulk battered by months of war.
But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko refuted reports the airport had fallen into the hands of rebel fighters.
Reuters
