Second battle for Donetsk airport

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Second battle for Donetsk airport
Damaged tower 12/2014
Damaged tower 12/2014
date September 28, 2014 to January 21, 2015
place Donetsk Airport , UkraineUkraineUkraine 
output Airport occupied by separatist militias
Parties to the conflict

UkraineUkraine Ukraine

Donetsk People's Republic Donetsk People's Republic
Russia Russian volunteers
supported by: Russia
RussiaRussia 

Commander

UkraineUkraine Wiktor Muschenko Oleh Kusminych ( Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the airport, later a prisoner of war ) UkraineUkraine

Donetsk People's Republic Mikhail Tolstych Arsen Pavlov
Donetsk People's Republic

losses

approx. 200 dead and 500 wounded

approx. 800 dead and 1,500–2,000 wounded

Events and battles of the
war in Ukraine

The Second Battle of Donetsk Airport was a military conflict in the Ukrainian War for control of Donetsk Airport between Ukrainian troops on the one hand and militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and friar associations of the Russian Federation on the other.

September 28, 2014 is considered to be the beginning of this second battle for the extensive area. The dispute is representative of the failure of the ceasefire , which was only agreed on September 5, 2014 with the Minsk Protocol . All the airport facilities were almost completely destroyed within three months by artillery and tank bombardment on both sides.

prehistory

First battle

The airport is only around two kilometers from Donetsk Central Station. Russia-friendly separatists proclaimed the " Donetsk People's Republic " in the city in April 2014 and subsequently began to occupy various administrative buildings and strategically important positions. In the course of these actions, armed fighters also attacked the airport grounds at the end of May 2014. They broke into the terminal on May 26th . Ukrainian associations then launched an attack with air support and drove out the irregulars the next day.

Ukraine war and initial situation

Outline map - Second battle for Donetsk airport.

At the end of May, the fighting between volunteer militias with rioters from the Russian Federation began to escalate with the troops of Ukraine. After heavy fighting, the anti-Ukrainian forces had lost large parts of the area they had originally claimed but never controlled. The defeat of the insurgents was thwarted by a reversal of the course of the war, for which Ukraine and NATO blame regular troops of the Russian Federation . Ukrainian units were pushed back along the entire front line in Donbass. However, Donetsk airport remained in the hands of Ukrainian troops until the Minsk armistice in September initially ended the fighting.

Volunteer associations of the Russian Federation and the other fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic held the urban area south of the airport and the Spartak settlement of the neighboring town of Avdiivka to the east of the site. Government forces of Ukraine held the villages north and Pisky west of the runway and the airport itself.

aims

Ukrainian authorities were of the opinion that the Minsk agreement made the airport part of Ukraine's territory, so counter-attacks aimed at driving the pro-Russian forces away from the site were justified. It was also assumed in Kiev that the irregulars could use the airport to fly in supplies from the Russian Federation. All that would have to do was repair the highway, which was littered with impact craters, which could be done within a few days. The many victims of the fighting also made the airfield highly symbolic and the government in Kiev feared that the insurgents and their Russian allies, strengthened by a possible victory in Donetsk, could threaten other cities in Ukraine, especially Kharkiv .

course

Beginning

The big hangar in October 2014.
Destroyed Yakovlev Jak-42 of the Donbassaero

Although there have been short artillery duels since the signing of the armistice, the fatalities of September 28, 2014 mark the beginning of the second battle. Several Ukrainian soldiers died in a fire attack and fighting that followed. The next day, pro-Russian militias began shooting at the Ukrainian troops at the airport with grenade launchers guided by observers from tall buildings in the city. On October 1st, they advanced with tanks and infantry from the south of Donetsk into the airport area and occupied the fuel depot and some hangars . In the days that followed, they pushed forward and worked their way through the workshop and service building to the vicinity of the old terminal, where the Ukrainians stopped their advance.

On October 9, 2014, after numerous attacks on their part, the militias announced the almost complete capture of the airport, but Ukrainian troops continued to hold the two terminals and the tower . After the insurgents gained access to the new terminal, fighting broke out there in which both sides held parts of the building at the same time. One floor of the new terminal finally collapsed due to an artillery strike.

Ukrainian troops said they gave up the old terminal on December 5 after heavy fire. On December 31st, vigilante groups tried to conquer the town of Pisky, west of the airfield. According to Ukrainian information, the town could be held.

January

Remnants of the new terminal, photographed from the old terminal in December 2014.

On January 13, the anti-Ukrainian forces again fired artillery at the new terminal and the tower. Part of the tower then collapsed.

In a new offensive around January 16, the pro-Russian fighters succeeded in capturing almost all the buildings at the airport on the south-eastern edge of the runway. Ukrainian fighters only held parts of the New Terminal.

The Ukrainian President announced a counter-offensive on January 18. After renewed fighting, Ukrainian soldiers reconnected to the ruins of the new terminal, which suffered further severe damage when pro-Russian forces collapsed a floor on January 19 to meet Ukrainian troops on the floor below.

The Ukrainians said they gave up the ruins of the new terminal on January 22nd to move to other positions.

After the battle, Ukrainian prisoners of war were mistreated (sometimes killed ) by members of the militia. Their leaders, Michail Tolstych and Arseni Pavlov, played a key role in this .

The role of Russia

Support of the irregulars

The support of the irregulars by the Russian Federation is considered certain. Ukrainians estimate that the Russian Federation had between 8,000 and 9,500 covert soldiers operating in eastern Ukraine at the end of January 2015. Russia, on the other hand, also denied at the end of January that its own regular troops would fight in Ukraine.

Officially

Statements by the Russian Federation have been limited to condemnations of Ukrainian artillery fire on residential areas in Donetsk. Furthermore, Ukraine's attempts to retake the airport in January 2015 were described as “strategic mistakes”. Observers considered Russian statements calling for new peace negotiations to be insincere. President Putin has no interest in resolving the conflict, since it would come in handy because it distracts from the domestic political problems in Russia itself.

The fact that the militias started their attacks from these residential areas or that the Minsk agreement was violated by the militias, be it through offensive activity or the use of foreign mercenaries such as the Chechen "Smert" battalion, was not addressed by Russia.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shaun Walker "Ukraine forces admit loss of Donetsk airport to rebels" Guardian January 21, 2015, viewed January 21, 2015
  2. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-c1-ukraine-donetsk-airport-20150128-story.html#page=1
  3. ↑ http://censor.net.ua/resonance/321591/kak_popal_v_plen_v_aeroportu_kombat_90go_batalona_95yi_brigady_oleg_kuzminyh_kak_pogibli_boyitsy_i_kak
  4. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-commander-wages-fight-death-east-ukraine-airport-073451740.html
  5. ↑ http://tass.ru/en/world/772000
  6. ↑ http://kp.ua/incidents/488292-ukraynskyi-stalynhrad-242-dnia-oborony-donetskoho-aeroporta
  7. ↑ a b c Steffen Dobbert: "The war is decided at the airport" ZEIT from January 21, 2015, viewed on January 21, 2015
  8. ↑ a b c "Ukraine Accuses Separatists of Abusing Minsk Deal With Land Grab" NYT from January 20, 2015, viewed on January 20, 2015
  9. ^ "Shelling continues around Donetsk airport as Ukraine truce holds, just" from September 18, 2014, viewed on January 6, 2014
  10. ↑ Victoria Butenko, Lindsay Isaac and Jethro Mullen: "9 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Donetsk fighting" CNN of September 29, 2014, viewed on January 5, 2015
  11. ↑ Gene Thorp and Lazaro Gamio: "The cease-fire was in Donetsk", October 28, 2014, viewed January 2, 2015
  12. ↑ Kateryna Choursina: "Ukraine Repels Rebel Attack on Airport as Truce Wobbles" Bloomberg from October 10, 2014, viewed on October 10, 2014
  13. ↑ "Ukraine fighters, surrounded at wrecked airport, refuse to give up" from October 28, 2014, viewed on January 6, 2015
  14. ↑ mw.ua : " Shelling makes Donetsk airport defenders to leave old terminal" from December 5, 2014, viewed on January 15, 2015
  15. ↑ "Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 30 December" OSCE from December 30, 2014, viewed on January 16, 2015
  16. ↑ "Ukraine bus attack kills 11 as airport battle worsens" Reuters January 13, 2015, viewed January 15, 2015
  17. ↑ Andrew Roth and Andrew E. Kramer: "Rebels Claim to Have Control of Ukraine Airport" NYT January 16, 2015, viewed January 17, 2015.
  18. ↑ Dead in fighting over Donetsk airport. Retrieved December 28, 2018 .
  19. ↑ "Ukraine accuses Russia of sending More Troops and Artillery to Aid Rebels" NYT of 19 January 2015 spotted on January 19, 2015.
  20. ↑ Pavel Polityuk: "Kiev pulls its forces out of Donetsk airport terminal in east Ukraine" Reuters of January 222, 2015, viewed on January 22, 2015
  21. ^ Benjamin Bidder: Separatist commander "Motorola": The executioner from Donetsk Airport. In: Spiegel Online . May 23, 2015, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  22. ↑ http://www.rferl.mobi/a/ukraine-prisoners-of-war-separatists-war-crimes-questions/26816285.html
  23. ↑ http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.ca/2015/01/givi-and-geneva-conventions.html
  24. ↑ a b “Peace talks for Eastern Ukraine failed again”, January 16, 2015, viewed on January 17, 2015
  25. ↑ "The troops of Ukraine also defend Europe" World of January 21, 2015, sighted on January 21, 2015
  26. ↑ "Ukraine Says Its Forces Attacked by Russian Troops" NYT January 18, 2015, viewed January 21, 2015
  27. ↑ Klaus-Helge Donath: "Continue to ignite as long as it goes" TAZ from January 19, 2015, viewed on January 20, 2015
  28. ^ "Smert, the Chechen Death Battalion", January 5, 2015, viewed on January 7, 2015

Coordinates: 48 ° 4 ′ 25 "  N , 37 ° 44 ′ 23"  E