Ukrainian forces fought with separatists in the city of Donetsk for a second day yesterday after inflicting heavy losses on the rebels and the government vowed to press on with a military offensive “until not a single terrorist” was left.
Pro-Russian rebels said more than 50 of their fighters had been killed. The mayor of Donetsk, an industrial hub of 1 million people in eastern Ukraine, said the death toll in the clashes which erupted on Monday stood at 40, including two civilians.
A correspondent counted 20 bodies in combat fatigues in one room of a hospital morgue, some of them missing limbs.
“From our side, there are more than 50 [dead],” the prime minister of the rebels’ self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Borodai, said at the hospital, adding that Ukrainian troops were now in control of the airport.
The Ukrainian government accused Russia of sending “terrorists” across its border. The foreign ministry in Kiev said it was protesting over Moscow’s failure to take action against a concentration of up to 40 truckloads of armed men.
The border guard service said it believed some of these had succeeding in crossing the frontier near Astakhovo, in Luhansk region, about 150km from Donetsk.
“There are grounds to believe that Russian terrorists are being sent onto Ukrainian territory, organized and financed under the direct control of the Kremlin and Russian special forces,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday called for an immediate end to what he described as a “punitive” operation by military forces in east Ukraine, and for talks between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels.
In a telephone call with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Putin “underlined the need for an immediate end to the military’s punitive operation in southeastern regions and the establishment of peaceful dialogue between Kiev and regional representatives,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Ukraine used air strikes and a paratroop assault on Monday to clear rebels from Donetsk’s international terminal and had pushed the separatists out of the complex by the end of the day.
However, shooting continued through the night and yesterday 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,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told journalists in the capital, Kiev.
“The adversary suffered heavy losses. We have no losses,” he said.
“We’ll continue the anti-terrorist operation until not a single terrorist remains on the territory of Ukraine,” Ukrainian 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.
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.
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