DONETSK, July 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian forces have recaptured Donetsk airport and reached the city's outskirts, a militia commander said on Wednesday.

However, the city itself is under the militia control, said Igor Strelkov, the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.

“The enemy has unblocked the airport and reached the north-western outskirts of Donetsk,” Novorossiya news agency quoted Strelkov as saying. “They will try to encircle us and make us retreat as it was done in Sloviansk,” he said.

Militia forces “have been moving back to the central part of Donetsk” under Ukrainian army's pressure, the Ukrainian military said adding that Luhansk, Horlivka, Donetsk, Avdeyevka and several sections of the Ukrainian state border remain under the militia control.