PART 1: BACKGROUND AND THE FIRST BATTLE OVER THE AIRPORT

Heavy fighting has been ongoing for control of Donetsk Airport for over a month now. Mass heroism is shown by both sides – ones side protecting the airport, the other leaving piles of dead bodies. The heroes are surrounded by hard curtain of lies, myths and populism. To honor the dead protectors of the airport we decided to uncover the truth to these events and debunk the myths created in Moscow and Kyiv.

Info graphics – Common Plan of Donetsk Sergei Prokofiev Airport.
1 – m/u A1428 air defense; 2 – Plant and base of the company which built the new terminal; 3 – m/u A1402 air defense, Names of settlements and road directions are underlined.
Area Name Labels: (anti-clockwise): Airport; Pesky, Karlovka; Opytne; Avdeevka; Horlovka. All these settlements except Horlovka were brought under Ukrainian Army control during the period from May to July.

The Development of Donetsk Sergei Prokofiev Airport

The airfield in Stalino (the name of Donetsk in 1924–1941 and 1943–1961) was built on blood. First bulldozers started leveling the airstrip area in 1933, the period of mass starvation in Ukrainian history. Even Russian historians who argue the pros and cons of Stalin’s guilt do not deny the fact of the starvation of the Ukrainian population. The first passenger aircrafts were flying from Donetsk to Starobelsk, a city in Luhansk region some 160km from the airport.

In preparation for the for Euro 2012 Football Cup a massive upgrade of the airport was undertaken. In June 2011 a new runway was built, and in May 2012 the new terminal completed which could accept 3100 passengers per hour. The Ukrainian construction company “Altcom” built the new terminal, which had been developed by experts from Croatia. The development was done pretty well, and the 7 billion Hrivnas (or 875 million US dollars) spent on the upgrade was considered a sound investment. But although the football championship came to an end the building plans were still not finished. Donetsk oligarchs, as real feudal lords, could not see themselves using the common terminal. So the Government started building the VIP terminal, from tax-payers money.

The new airport could accept any class of aircraft. During 2013 more than a million passengers passed through the terminals. Besides Akhmetov’s charter planes, the airport worked with more than ten airlines. The main routes out of Donetsk were Kyiv and Moscow. Almost all another flights went to Turkey, servicing tourists visiting Turkish resorts. To Europe there was just one flight to Munich. There were also flights to Greece, Emirates, Kutaisi, Surgut, Ashgabat, and Israel. The airport also handled cargo planes.

The Fight Begins

After the separatists seized Slaviansk a squad from the 3rd Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian Army arrived to the airport. The squad was based in the old terminal, and the airport continued working. In May the troops of Khodakovsky, named “Vostok battalion” arrived to Dontesk. There were lot of people of Caucasus origin – from Chechnya, Dagestan and others areas.

On the 26^th of May Khodakovsky (who according to some sources was the former commander of “Alpha”, a Ukrainian Special Forces Battalion), held negotiations with the commander of the Ukrainian Special Forces squad at the airport. It is believed the discussion was something like this:

• “Let us take the new terminal. Without shooting and bloodshed that nobody needs. You will remain in the old terminal and can declare to your chiefs that you keep your positions. Who need the bloodshed? We will enter to the new terminal, journalists from Russia will come and film us, and the airport will continue to work as it used to.
• Ok, You can try to take it. But we took the oath and we not going to become traitors to the country”.

After this dialogue several KAMAZ vehicles with terrorists drove to the airport. They entered the new terminal where passengers and airport staff were going about their business. The Ukrainian Special Force troopers did not prevent the Vostok militants entering in order to avoid victims among the civilian people. But troopers started warning fire first to make people run away. Meanwhile the militants took defensive positions and got ready to defend against attack. Then the fight started.

The terrorists set up defensive positions, including on the roof of the terminal. The Ukrainian military flew in reinforcements and used aviation support, at least two Mi-24 helicopters and one SU-25 attack aircraft. Perhaps not expecting such aggression from the Ukrainian military Khodakovsky’s terrorists fed the airport buildings. However skirmishing continued on the outskirts of the airport. The militants retreated so fast that in the panic and confusion they shot up at least one of their own KAMAZ trucks loaded with wounded believing that the vehicle was Ukrainian Special Forces moving into Donetsk itself. By the end of the day the airport was fully under Ukrainian military control.

There were many Russian journalists that had been invited to film the `bloodless’ capture of the airport. Most of them knew that some kind of event would take place, but they did not know the details. This is why the defeat of Vostok battalion was so well recorded. The outcome was that Khodakovsky sent a truck load of “Cargo 200” back to Russia for the bodies to be identified and sent home for burial.

Vostok’s composition changed radically after it suffered heavy losses at Donetsk airport. The separatists reported that they had lost 102 men, while the Ukrainian military put the number at 150. At least thirty-two of those killed were Russian citizens, of which 12 were former or serving paratroopers from the Russian 45th Spetsnaz Regiment.

From this time flights to and from the airport were suspended.

May to July: The Airport is Relatively Quite

After the May storming the airport stopped working. But the terrorists understood the risks to fight with special forces and there was no serious attempt to seize the airport. The `Kirovogradians’ easily repelled all the terrorist attacks. It was during this period that the terrorists retreated from Sloviansk, and the Ukrainian forces began encircling Donetsk. But the Ukrainian forces holding the airport were also faced with constant sniper fire and they took casualties. Supply and transportation of troops in an out of the airport faced on-going harassment by the enemy. In August the situation changed.

Coming soon … PART2: THE RUSSIAN INVASION AND THE SEIGE OF THE AIRPORT

Source: http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://www.garmata.org/index.php/blog1/217-donetskij-aeroport-krovavaya-smes-lzhi-i-geroizma
[Burkonews has made some adaptations and additions to the original]