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The Battle of Donetsk Airport (2015/16) – The Replay of Grozny with Modern Weapons
By Umer Khan
The classic urban warfare scene between the Ukrainian forces and the rebels was
demonstrated in the Donetsk Airport. During the Battle of Donetsk Airport, there came a time
when just like in Grozny, the Ukrainian forces were fighting from the first and the second
floors of the international airport while the separatists held the basement and the third floor.1
Yuri Zoria reported that the first battle of Donetsk International Airport commenced on 26
May 2014. To relieve the airport, the Ukrainian paratroopers launched an assault with close
air support to destroy anti-aircraft guns and the Russian reinforcements. The battle for the
control of Donetsk airport lasted for eight months. When clashes intensified, the Russian-
hybrid forces started massive artillery bombardment. They used multiple rocket launchers,
tanks and self-propelled guns to suppress the Ukrainian positions. When the Russian hybrid
forces captured the airport, all that was left was ‘pile of rubble’. All the airport buildings were
destroyed, the runway got damaged and carried the wreckage of war. Zoria commented that,
‘by the end of the battle, the airport looked like Stalingrad during WWII’.2
To stop the Ukrainian troops, the rebels barricaded the road to the airport.3 A DPR
intelligence officer commented that the rebels had T-64 tanks and multiple rocket launchers
and we don't have what we need to get them out.4 A press reporter saw the rebel tanks firing
cannons at the main terminal of Donetsk airport. Snipers were used extensively in the battle.
1 Suba, ‘Land Warfare in Ukraine: Modern Battlefield of Europe’, p.6.
2 Yuri Zoria, ‘In Memoriam: The Defence Of Donetsk Airport (25 May 2014 – 22 January 2015)’, Euromaidan
Press (27 May 2017) <http://euromaidanpress.com/2017/05/27/donetsk-airport-defence-in-memoriam/>
[accessed 24 August 2019].
3 News Desk, ‘East Ukraine City Largely Calm After Battle, Rebels Seek Russian Help’, World Bulletin (27
May 2014) <https://www.worldbulletin.net/europe/east-ukraine-city-largely-calm-after-battle-rebels-seek-
russian-help-h137417.html> [accessed 24 August 2019].
4 News, ‘Donetsk Airport Standoff Continues’, Sky News Australia (25 Sep 2014)
<https://www.skynews.com.au/> [accessed 24 August 2019].
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The rebels after seizing airport buildings used them to bring artillery fire on Ukrainians at the
main airport terminal building.5
Michael MacKay reports that the auxiliary troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian
Federation were commanded by regular Russian officers. They attacked the Donetsk airport
and seized its buildings.6 The Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk commented that, ‘a
number of trucks full of live ammunition, full of Russian-trained guerrillas crossed the
Russian border into Ukraine’.7
Sergei reported that at one point only three floors remained of the seven-story
building, the Ukrainian commandos controlled the ground and the second floors. The pro-
Russia separatists fought from the third floor and the basement. They barricaded the
entrances with debris and booby traps. The separatists used basement tunnels to switch
between the buildings. He commented that, ‘the two enemies were sharing the same building
playing a claustrophobic game of cat and mouse’.8 David Betz reports that the Ukrainian
officers called the defence of the Donetsk Airport against the rebel forces of the Donbass
Republic as a ‘mini-Stalingrad’. The airport according to his report became a serpentine grid
of tunnels, bunkers, and underground communications systems. 9
During the night the rebels appeared in the balcony of the third floor and shot Mukha
grenade down on the sleeping Ukrainian troops. 10 The separatists were armed with Soviet-era
small arms like Kalashnikov machine and submachine guns. They wore random uniforms,
5 Press, ‘Pro-Russia Rebels Attempt To Seize Donetsk Airport In Ukraine’, The Guardian (3 Oct 2014)
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/pro-russia-rebels-donetsk-airport-ukraine> [accessed 24
August 2019].
6 Michael MacKay, ‘Day Of The Defenders Of Donetsk Airport’, Radio Lemberg (21 Jan 2019)
<http://radiolemberg.com/ua-articles/ua-allarticles/day-of-the-defenders-of-donetsk-airport> [accessed 24
August 2019].
7 News Desk, ‘East Ukraine City Largely Calm After Battle, Rebels Seek Russian Help’.
8 Sergei L. Loiko, ‘Ukraine Fighters, Surrounded at Wrecked Airport, Refuse to Give Up’, Los Angeles Times
(28 October 2014) <https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-c1-ukraine-airport-20141028-story.html#page=1>
[accessed 24 August 2019].
9 Betz and Stanford-Tuck, ‘The City is Neutral’.
10 Loiko, ‘Ukraine Fighters, Surrounded at Wrecked Airport, Refuse to Give Up’.
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helmets and jackets supplied by volunteers or issued by the army. During night, radios and
flashlights were switched off. Even the flash of cigarette lighters would draw sniper fire.
During the night, without proper heating arrangement, the temperatures fell sub-zero inside
the building.11
MacKay said that the Ukrainian troops fought relentlessly and held the airport tower
and the main terminal building until the Russians destroyed the tower. The second floor of the
main building exploded on 20 January 2015 due to continuous bombardment.12 Ukrainian
media reported that the rebels fired Grad rockets at the Ukrainian positions at the airport.13
Ukrainian presidential adviser Yuriy Biriukov posted on Facebook that the floor structures of
the second floor of the new terminal building have collapsed, being blown up by the
separatists. Many troops got wounded as the debris fell on them.14 Recalling the Ukrainian
Soldiers as ‘Cyborgs’, MacKay commented that ‘the Cyborgs withstood, but the concrete
failed’.15
11 Loiko, ‘Ukraine Fighters, Surrounded at Wrecked Airport, Refuse to Give Up’.
12 MacKay, ‘Day Of The Defenders Of Donetsk Airport’.
13 News, ‘Donetsk Airport Shelling Violates East Ukraine Truce’, BBC News (30 September 2014)
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29424766> [accessed 24 August 2019].
14 Interfax-Ukraine, ‘Floors Collapse In New Terminal Of Donetsk Airport, Many Ukrainian Troops Hurt’,
Kyiv Post (19 January 2015) <https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/war-against-ukraine/floors-collapse-in-
new-terminal-of-donetsk-airport-many-ukrainian-troops-hurt-2-377806.html> [accessed 24 August 2019].
15 MacKay, ‘Day Of The Defenders Of Donetsk Airport’.