Separatist leader says 50 militiamen killed in Ukraine attack

New York Times: 27 May 2014
Separatist leader says 50 militiamen killed in Ukraine attack

The prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, a separatist group that controls this eastern region of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that about 50 pro-Russian militiamen had been killed the day before in heavy fighting with Ukrainian forces for control of a crucial airport.

The Ukrainian military conducted a major operation on Monday to take back the airport, which militants had only seized a few hours before. It was the first aggressive move against the fighters and came just one day after a national election in which a Ukrainian billionaire, Petro O. Poroshenko, won in a landslide. Mr. Poroshenko has pledged to take on the separatists, whom he has compared to Somali pirates.

Alexander Borodai, the premier of the Donetsk People’s Republic who has been a central player in the motley collection of separatist leaders, said that while the pro-Russian fighters’ casualties were high, so were those of the Ukrainian military.

“This is war,” he said. “Our losses are serious. But our opponents losses are not less, and maybe even more.”

The military issued a warning to separatists on Monday to vacate the airport and attacked them around midday using helicopters and fighter jets when they did not comply.

“Kiev is giving us some kinds of ultimatums,” Mr. Borodai said. “Let them keep giving them.”

Donetsk, May 27th 2014 - destroyed rebel trucks soaked in blood

On Tuesday morning, Donetsk was quiet. All gunfire had subsided. Pictures circulated on social media of a Kamaz truck that had been blown up, reportedly by the Ukrainian military, and was said to have contained separatists.

Reuters: 27 May 2014
Fighting Rages in Ukraine Eastern City, at Least 40 Dead

At least 45 dead rebels here at Donetsk morgue after battle yesterday. One man with leg blown off.

Ukrainian forces fought with separatists in the city of Donetsk for a second day on Tuesday after inflicting heavy losses on the rebels while the government vowed to press on with a military offensive "until not a single terrorist" was left.

A representative for the pro-Russian militants conceded that about 30 rebels had been killed while the mayor of Donetsk said the death toll from fighting which erupted on Monday stood at 40, including two civilians.

A Reuters correspondent counted 20 bodies in combat fatigues in one room of a city morgue, some of them missing limbs.

Donetsk morgue, May 27th 2014.

Ukraine used air strikes and a paratroop assault on Monday to clear rebels from Donetsk's international airport and had pushed the separatists out of the complex by the end of the day.

But shooting continued through the night and on Tuesday the road to the airport bore signs of fighting overnight and heavy machinegun fire could be heard in the distance in mid-morning.

"The airport is completely under control," interior minister Arsen Avakov told journalists in the capital Kiev. "The adversary suffered heavy losses. We have no losses," he added.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov during a press conference in Kiev.

"We'll continue the anti-terrorist operation until not a single terrorist remains on the territory of Ukraine," first deputy prime minister Vitaly Yarema said on the margins of a government meeting.
"We have 29 or 30 dead on our side but that is not the final count yet," said Dima Gau, a rebel representative, while another unnamed rebel at a morgue in Donetsk spoke of rebel deaths of 30 to 35.

Donetsk mayor Alexander Lukyanchenko said 40 people had been killed in the past day, 38 of the bodies being of those involved in fighting around the airport.

Pro-Russian rebels Kamaz truck in Donetsk fled in direction of airport.

OFFENSIVE

Ukraine launched the fresh offensive against the rebels, who have occupied strategic points in Donetsk, an industrial hub of one million, and other towns in the east, after Kiev's newly elected leader rejected any talks with "terrorists". Petro Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire oligarch, won overwhelming support in Sunday's election that many hope will draw a line under six months of upheaval. He said a robust military campaign in the east should be able to put down a separatist revolt in "a matter of hours".

On the road to the airport, Reuters journalists saw blood-spattered and bullet-riddled hulks of trucks of the kind the separatist fighters have been using.

Though the rebels backing the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) had suffered serious losses, the heavy machine gunfire indicated that government forces were still facing resistance.

It was too early to say if the apparent military successes of government forces could break the rebellion in Donetsk, the first of a rash of such revolts across eastern Ukraine after months of turmoil in the capital that led to the ousting of the Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovich.

In Donetsk on Tuesday a hockey stadium had been set ablaze, though firefighters now had it under control.

A Kamaz truck of the type rebels use to ferry their fighters was wrecked on the airport road, covered in blood and completely riddled with bullet holes. Blood had spattered across the entire roadway and even reached a billboard seven metres above.

Outside the city centre, another Kamaz was flipped over, its deck covered in blood.

The mayor reinforced warnings for people to avoid the airport area and said nine schools and two hospitals had been closed, with patients evacuated elsewhere. He reassured people that food and other supplies were still reaching the city.

CNN: 27 May 2014

'We are from Chechnya, sent by Kadyrov': so-called Donetsk rebels told CNN crew