Major fighting was reported today in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, with a key battle fought throughout the day at Sergey Prokofiev International Airport in the city’s northwest.
Troops backed by military aircraft attacked the airport, aiming to retake it from a pro-protester faction. Both sides claimed victory by the end of the day, with the military reporting ousting them, and the protesters reporting they had retaken the airport after that. Airstrikes were fired during the battle, which is still ongoing to some extent, and one missile hit a nearby factory, injuring a civilian.
While the airport was the main target, protesters also seized the Donetsk railway station, and came under attack by the military there as well. Casualties among combatants weren’t reported by either side, but one civilian was killed by a stray bullet.
President-elect Petro Poroshenko claimed the situation was in hand and that fighting in Donetsk would be over in a matter of hours. The militias loyal to the Donetsk People’s Republic leadership similarly say they will expel the military in short order. Civilians are being urged to stay indoors, and the fighting seems likely to go well beyond the expectations of either side.
No small skirmish, surely, as the Ukraine military had over 200 troops in the airport when they were driven out.
In a recent Scott Horton interview it was predicted that Russia would not use it’s military, but that we could expect to see lots of action from their Special Forces..
Putin is about to lose face. He has no choice now, but to let the separatists get destroyed. He is playing for time, when this new regime fails and then he can do some damage. He might have to sacrifice the pro Russians in order to do this.
We will see what happens. I am thinking Putin is going to have to take some "pain" as his stature is going to diminish some as be looks like he is backing down with the new President.
As Ukrainian hired mercenaries have tried without being successful, now is time for the military to act, they already have tried to capture cities and villages but being defeated they have brought in their big gun, their air force bombing civilians homes killing unarmed men and women, one way or other these far right regimes will be defeated by the people sooner then they think.
By EU and USG assisting the Neo fascism and other form of far right regimes in Ukraine, they actually in business creating Neo Hitlerism that is of growing concerns, even the French president have voiced his concern over the matters.
While european parties discuss their coalition agreements they forget about innocent people get killed.More over Poroshenko does not seach compromise and/or negociations with separatists(new form of european thinking maybe) he just want to shoot them all.