Fighting goes on for Donetsk’s airport

Even though a ceasefire is in place, fighting continues around the eastern city of Donetsk, especially at the Sergey Prokofiev Airport which has sustained severe shelling damage during clashes between the two sides.

General Denikin of the Donetsk People’s Republic told the Press TV correspondent in Donetsk, “At this time we control the entire airport except for the new terminal. This is not a ceasefire, it would have been better if we did not agree to it in the first place. All it did was give [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko's forces a chance to regroup. Poroshenko is a pawn of the US that wants to destabilize the region.”

Kiev and the pro-Russians inked a Russian-proposed truce pact on September 5 in a move to put an end to heavy clashes in Ukraine’s eastern provinces, but the fighting continues unabated.

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Moscow activists and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence pro-Russians in mid-April.

Violence intensified in May after the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held local referendums, in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.

According to a Wednesday report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, clashes between government troops and pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine have left at least 331 people dead after the September ceasefire. The report also cited human rights violations and cases of torture and ill treatment of prisoners such as sexual violence and mock executions by both sides.

HK