MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. A huge number of Ukrainian servicemen were killed and about 300 wounded while attempting to break into an area nearby Donetsk airport and the village of Spartak, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko told reporters on Thursday.

"Yesterday [April 15] nationalist battalions [of the Ukrainian Armed Forces] and DPR militia clashed in a battle after up to two squadrons of the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an attack in two directions but were repelled," the Donetsk news agency quoted Zakharchenko as saying.

"We destroyed eight units of the enemy’s combat hardware as a result," he said. "Many Ukrainian servicemen were killed and wounded. According to radio intercepts, we found out that Ukrainian military removed around 300 injured servicemen from the areas where the battle was raging on."