Fighting in progress at Donetsk airport
DONETSK/KYIV. Sept 30 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic militia has moved onto premises of Donetsk airport, a source in the militia staff told Interfax. Ukrainian servicemen say they have managed to repel attacks.
"We have advanced a bit into the territory of the Donetsk airport. It is too much early to say when it could be fully cleared," the source noted.
"Stand-alone buildings, which are transformed into fire nests, and large quantities of mines and booby traps create problems with clearing the terrain," he said.
According to the militia, Ukrainian servicemen are making successful artillery attacks on a part of the Kyivsky district and the Oktyabrsky mine camp from the airport premises.
Hostilities at the Donetsk airport continue.
Kyiv says the Ukrainian army has been repelling attacks on the Donetsk airport.
The militia "artillery and Grad launchers have once again hit positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk airport area and have twice attempted to storm the airport. Every attack has been successfully repelled," Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Information Analysis Center Speaker Andriy Lysenko said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Lysenko accused the militia of "ongoing violations of the ceasefire regime in Donbas."
The militia opened mortar and rifle fire three times on a Ukrainian stronghold near the village of Ridkodub in the Shakhtarsk district of the Donetsk region and shelled Ukrainian positions near the village of Nikishne in the Shakhtarsk district five times on Monday, he said.
The NSDC also claimed an increased number of attacks on residential areas. Grad rocket launchers deployed in Kirovske fired at Donetsk and Yenakiieve on September 29, Lysenko said. He also claimed that the militia was using Tyulpan self-propelled artillery systems "to shell residential areas of the town of Debaltseve."
