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Ukrainian military conduct massive attacks on Donetsk airport — Donetsk republic spokesman

In the course of defensive operations the militias destroyed 27 tanks and 20 armoured vehicles of the Kiev military
Ukrainian soldiers seen in eastern Ukraine EPA / OLGA IVASHCHENKO
Ukrainian soldiers seen in eastern Ukraine
© EPA / OLGA IVASHCHENKO

DONETSK, January 19. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military are conducting massive attacks against the airport of Donetsk and shelling its territory with Grad and Uragan multiple rocket systems, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Eduard Basurin, said.

“Over the past day the Donetsk militias have repelled massive attacks against the airport of Donetsk, that the Ukrainian troops launched on direct instructions from the Ukrainian president,” Basurin said.

The Ukrainian military have been using large calibre artillery and aircraft, he added.

“Ukrainian armour that was about to storm the militias’ positions was stopped far away and mostly destroyed,” he said.

The general ratio of losses sustained by the Donetsk forces and the Ukrainian troops over the past day is one to ten, Basurin said.

“In the course of defensive operations the militias destroyed 27 tanks and 20 armoured vehicles. One tank was seized. Ukraine’s losses have exceeded 200 killed and about 300 injured. Our losses stand at 16 killed and 62 injured,” he said.

“The airport and the areas around it are under the full control of the Donetsk Republic’s forces. At the moment the militias are conducting a security sweep in the village of Peski, close to the airport, from where Ukrainian artillery had shelled Donetsk residential areas and suburbs for the past few months,” Basurin said.