After 3 days of complete media blackout from Donetsk airport and one day after Russian invasion forces proved to have captured several Ukrainian troops at the airport, fresh footage from inside the new terminal appeared.This footage leaves no doubt that not only the entire terminal and facility building complex (with the possible exception of the collapsed tower and radar station) are in Russian hands, but also that Russian media and troops can move freely over the apron north of the terminal between the five gates of the former airport, leaving no doubt of not being afraid by any opposing forces close-by.
Geolocation of Russian media footage from January 21
the situation on January 18
Why can this be said with almost 100% certainty? The last article, dealing with the airport, was written on January 19 and reflected the “who controls what” situation from one day earlier, namely January 18. Looking at the analysis of the different possessions within the building from that day, it becomes clear that only parts of the western and north western front were still held by Ukrainian forces, while most of the terminal was already under Russian control already – proven by lots of footage over the previous days. Latest available footage from Cyborgs within the building ( “playing soccer”) could be located between the very left and second from left gates. This area is entirely under Russian control now, leaving no doubt that there are no Ukrainian soldiers left in the terminal.
Other footage, showing a panorama of the northern gates section of the terminal, adds to the impression that this is no “sneaked” – or even “faked” footage, but reflects the real situation in the area. It was recorded between gate 2 and 3 (from the left) and shows both the destroyed gates with the foggy horizon to the north and two destroyed Ukrainian T-64 plus several more army vehicles, lost due to the extreme shelling and overwhelming ground troop attacks, never short of “human resources” to throw (and sacrifice) into the battle.
Gate 3
destroyed T-64
It is not totally clear, when the terminal fell completely to Russian troops but the story around the captured Ukrainian troops from yesterday morning seems to give at least some indication. According to the Ukrainian army they were sent to evacuate wounded fellow troops and resupply them with ammunition. However the claim that an incompetent commander “missed the terminal by 800 meters during fog” sounds not very reliable, giving the fact that he only had to follow the taxi ways from Pisky. Instead – sadly – the version some of the captured Ukrainian troops said in Russian confinement sounds slightly more reliable, despite it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. That version claiming to not knowing the situation at the airport plus the claim of Russian invaders that those troops “just ran into us” indicates the formerly described “safe movement zone” (map further above) ceased to exist between January 19 and January 20, despite heaviest artillery, MLRS and tank fire on all Russian positions by the Ukrainian defenders N and N-W of the airport.
But as so often in war, the truth is somewhere in the middle. On January 20, Russian media showed 5 Ukrainian POW and claimed to have killed 6 more, which surely does not mean that this was the force to recapture – or only attack – the airport. The next morning, Russian channels aired footage of captured Ukrainian troops in Donetsk hospitals, suddenly saying, 16 of them are treated for their injuries at the moment. This is speculation of course, but it appears that those “new” captured – dusty and injured – troops might have been the remaining Cyborgs, Ukr troops were to evacuate of reinforce the day before. As no help came, they might have decided to do the only reasonable in the light of the military superiority of the enemy. – Almost all alternatives are much worse. Russian propaganda footage also showed a number of bodies at the taken over terminal, claimed to be Ukrainian troops but without showing proof for that claim …
Whatever really happened, it looks like the last relevant Ukrainian position within the perimeters of Donetsk airport fell between January 19 and January 20 with reinforcements (/suppliers) as well as more troops from inside the terminal going into Russian POW-ship. This means that all Ukrainian claims since then that they are “still in the buildings and the airport” like states in the evening of January 21 are rather propaganda to keep up the moral than fact-based reports. The only position that remains unknown is the one of the airport’s destroyed tower, but not possibly under fire from 270 degrees, it would make little sense to hold that ruin.
Ukrainian forces are not defending, but attacking the airport now, lagging the manpower and general strength to halt or even repulse the Moscow-sent masses with their almost endless stream of mostly crude but deadly weapon systems and ammunition.
The final map shows the situation around Donetsk airport as it might look now according to this assessment. As it is still very fluid – meaning Russian troops could have captured even more right now, especially around Pisky – it reflects the actual state of affairs as it was available in the evening hours of January 21.
Map based on assessment – 21.1.2015
This article is not about putting blame on anyone for the current military development. Only so much be said: The way, the Ukrainian government and army is leading the war at the moment – it is losing it and with it large parts of Ukraine itself.
Conflict Report 
Reblogged this on Commentaria.
I know it is not a popular thought, but the Ukrainians should have left the airport months ago and I will venture to say something even more unpopular they should also withdraw from Debal’tseve.
The reason for this is quite simple the Ukrainian forces have a front line that is too extended and not enough men and equipment to effectively defend it. The Ukrainian armed forces are far too depleted to make any serious defence of such a large front line, on paper they have enough forces, but that is the problem, most exist just on paper. even there most effective Brigades are woefully understrength and in some cases are 50% under strength this is the harsh reality. This is due to a combination of corruption (Generals still claiming pay for troops that do not exist) and the also the wilful neglect under the Yanukovych regime where theft of state assets was carried out on an industrial scale. Compile that with the heavy defeat last august where so much armour was destroyed, I fear unless radical plans are implemented now Ukraine will feel the loss of Kharkiv, Mariupol and possibly more.
The Ukrainian plan to retake the airport in the last few days was doomed to failure it was vastly undermanned, the idea they could retake an airport complex of that size, with an entrenched professional enemy with vast reserves of armour and artillery support, with 10 mediocre tanks, 10 or so APC’s and in bad weather is possibly one of the worst military plans I have ever seen. 20 tanks and 40 APC’s fully manned with combat proficient troops and an effective artillery support might have worked. But Ukraine just does not have the resources at the moment and now many combat proficient troops have lost lives needlessly.
I know many that read this blog have demanded that Ukraine go on the offensive, maybe the reality of this defeat will bring a harsh wake up. Ukraine is fighting a determined country that has vast reserves of old armour held in strategic reserves that it has thrown at the donbas and has made it clear that it wants this conflict to slowly eat away at Ukraine, until it returns to “Moscow’s sphere of influence”. Now I am not suggesting Ukraine gives in, far from it. I am about as Pro independent Ukraine as any, but Ukraine cannot afford to sustain losses trying to defend the indefensible with its military so badly depleted.
On a last note when Zakharchenko and his circus turn up at the airport tomorrow to crow over the wonderful victory I hope Ukraine opens up with every Tank, Grad, Gvozdika, Akatsiya, Pion, Msta, D-30, Tulip and Tochka it has within 10 miles and lays waste to the entire airport so that it resembles the moon and reminds everyone it has a real bite still.
James looks like a sophisticated Russian troll. I put 80% probability that he is. The last paragraph indicates his sophistication as a troll. Readers of this blog can appreciate the sophistication and the effort put by the Russian propaganda and a wast quantity of English speaking trolls.
Russia does dominate European shitizenry in trolls and info warfare, Russia corrupted all the European bureaucracy. But there is no superiority on the field, contrary to what the troll James pretends.
The key in this war is 1) anti artillery radars 2) anti drones and the drones themselves 3) anti airkarf and anti radar long range missiles. Barak Husein sabotaged necessary supplies to Ukraine, declared there will be none. And even before, Ukrainian billionaire criminals, FSB agents, should have been arrested in the West in 2010. Then, another Russian agent, the former president and a life-long criminal Yanukovich would not have become president. He himself could have been arrested. But nobody in the US embassy or in the State department seriously follows up Ukraine’s issues. It is the same parasitic bureaucracy I mention: the result is not required, there is not responsibility for mistakes.
Russian army is not big enough to invade Ukraine. That is why that did do that yet. They have a huge territory to control. Proficiency and genetic material in the Russian army could be judged by a recent murder of an Armenian family by a retard Russian solder. Most of the solders are like that.
On the other hand, note that Putin copies ISIS strategy in Ukraine. If Ukraine looses, the population will be subjected to genocide.
It should be said also that there is no way Russia can control Ukraine even if occupied. One Russian general had his throat cut 2 days ago by a guerrilla group. As a Ukrainian, I can assure that there is no way Russia can win. Many invaders, all the Russian generals, will die with their throats cut in barbaric manner.
So, troll James, with the money you receive for posting here, go and by some vodka, masturbate yourself, and think what you’ll do when chaos spreads in Russia. It may be just a couple of months away.
You couldn’t be further from the truth – James is definitely not a Russian troll, the simple reason being is that the Russian public opinion management is done entirely by the bottom of the barrel minimum wage hordes, whose sophistication tops out at calling the “mainstream western opinion” into question, that needs to be balanced by “alternative viewpoints” (a.k.a. RT) They also tend to hang-out in the mainstream sites rather than in the fringes of citizen-analytics.
I agree with Trevor. Most of the trolls can be found at mainstream media, where the most readers are. They count on general stupidity of the readers, which is quite futile since the majority won’t be reading those discussions anyway. I’m from Finland, we have them plenty on sites like “Ilta-Sanomat”.
You are mistaken. Go and read below The Economist articles on Ukraine. You’ll see very sophisticated trolls with excellent command of English, logic. But they are trolls.
Understand, the Western media are parasitic. There is no normal reporting from Ukraine in English. None. There is none from Syria either. Therefore, those who do not speak Russian or Arab can not understand the situation.
Many journalists, analyst and politicians in West are in fact Russian trolls. There is a “Putin’s International” composed of western politicians.
Interesting
Of course I realised before posting a potentially unpopular suggestion, I would probably get branded as a Russian troll. But just to clarify, I wholeheartedly support Ukraine and Ukraine’s independence, I would like nothing more than to see Zakharchenko and his ilk buried under Ukrainian boots, and his sponsors on trial at the Hague. Additionally I whole heartedly admire the Ukrainian troops that have defended the airport terminal, some of whom I have met on my many trips to UA.
The point I was making is that Ukraine still has limited combat proficient manpower and armour and it must pick its battles carefully, and fight on its own terms and then inflict even more serious damage on these invaders, drunks and criminals. Let us not forget that Moscow has made it pretty clear it wants to inflict serious pain on Ukraine by promoting instability. It does not matter where the lines are drawn, these invaders, drunks and criminals will be encouraged to cause flare ups in hostilities at regular intervals to continue Moscow’s plan of promoting this constant instability.
Withdrawing from the Airport last month when the defence of the terminals become less and less feasible would have allowed Ukraine to have claimed it withdrew from the airport as the Minsk demarcation line runs right through the middle of the airport and given Ukraine and moral and propaganda victory. Either that or thrown serious manpower and armour at the airport to have pushed the Russian marines and Chechen’s back as far as the railway station. Just sending in 10 tanks and 10 or so APC’s was never going to do the job against a professional, dug in, well defended force. In doing so all the Ukrainian General did is repeat the same mistakes the rebels have made in all the unsuccessful attempts over the past 200+ days.
At Debal’tseve the Ukrainians are trying to defend on three sides over a large area, where as pulling back to the reservoir would allow them to shorten the front line, use local topography to their advantage and mount a stronger defence when the inevitable next offensive comes, there by inflicting much more serious damage on the drunks and criminals and raising a more realistic chance of a successful Ukrainian counter offensive.
At the moment Ukraine does not have the luxury of being able to allow pride to over rule logic, it must fight its battles where it knows it can win, but not just win, but win decisively. A stronger defence also buys Ukraine important time to rebuild its armour inventory to a proper level and train a larger number of troops to high combat readiness.
If you still wish to brand me a Russian troll then so bit it
Hi James, thank you for your reply. You show a very high degree of sophistication. But your previous post match a troll message signature. You may be influenced by the Russian propaganda because of its overwhelming presence in the media.
Your analysis and suggestion that Ukrainians should have withdraw from the airport days or week earlier is correct. I totally agree with it.
It appears today that the Airport is another staged “demoralizing defeat”. Indeed, there are repeatedly absurd lost confrontation with the same pattern. At first, there is a patriotic hype in Ukrainian media, then a lack of info and disinformation “we are holding well, our heroes are the best”, some suicidal attempts to get through to the surrounded troops and then a defeat with some humiliating and amplified by Russian propaganda elements. It was the case in Illovayski, with the Checkpoint 32, and now the
Hi James, thank you for your reply. You show a very high degree of sophistication. But your previous post matches a troll message signature. I conclude that you may be influenced by the Russian propaganda because of its overwhelming presence in the media.
Your analysis and suggestion that Ukrainians should have withdraw from the airport days or weeks earlier is correct. I totally agree with it.
It appears today that the Airport is another staged “demoralizing defeat”. Indeed, there are repeatedly confrontations absurdly lost by Ukrainians, all following a similar pattern. At first, there is a patriotic hype in Ukrainian media, then a lack of info and disinformation: “we are holding well, our heroes are the best”, then, some suicidal attempts to get through to the surrounded troops, and then comes a defeat with humiliating details. It was the case with Illovaysk, with the Checkpoint 32, and now with the Airport.
Ukrainian president Poroshenko collaborates with Putin. Putin calls him regularly to intimidate and to instruct.
Poroshenko is sabotaging the military. Ukraine has been in war for 11 months. But there is not enough progress in reorganizing and preparing the army. Difficulties around Debal’tsevo, Donetsk airport and in other areas are due to a false ceasefire and sabotage by Ukrainian generals. The artillery was not used by the Ukrainian army. Nothing was done by Ukrainians to improve their positions around Debal’tsevo, around Donetsk airport.
Your suggestion to withdraw from Debal’tsevo and other areas are hardly correct. Putin has the aim to create a viable “bantustan”, an ISIS style, self sufficient economically buntustan in Donbass. If Russians do not control the Schast’ye electric power station, Debal’tsevo railway and road hub, and some other assets, it is not possible. Moreover, the plan of Putin is to take more of Ukraine. It is the nature of the hybrid war. Putin will not stop. He will keep pushing on contingency basis. Note, for instance the way of terrorist attacks in Ukraine – 3 per day – unseen for Ukraine.
The break will not help to the Ukrainian army because of the sabotage by the President of Ukraine, the generals and the marauding bureaucracy. They are incapable to do what is needed.
In my opinion, no improvement for Ukraine is possible if Poroshenko remains president. The West, whatever that means, should push Poroshenko to resign. Same for Yatsenyuk. A new popular uprising is needed to remove Poroshenko, and Yatsenyuk, the prime minister.
Ukraine has no other option unless it fights this war and contains the Russian long enough. Otherwise, the country will turn into chaos and will be depopulated.
Best regards.
Neandertalien, you can be forgiven for this because the Russian troll onslaught has been pretty traumatic, but I think you’re overreacting to James’ posts.
I agree 100% with his first. Ukraine needs to stop trying to defend poorly-defensible positions, they need to make hard decisions about possibly giving up tenuous territory to create a properly fortified line, and they need to somehow clean house and get rid of poor commanders who have prosecuted this war in incompetent fashion from the beginning. Then they need to put in the hard work to build up their armed forces, convert them to Western standards (which will be a prereq for NATO admission anyhow) and tactics, and overall create a more professional command structure and military that doesn’t have to beg for civilian donations for its supplies.
It will take long hard work – at least a couple years – but only then will they be able to take back the Donbass. That’s the hard reality. They are simply incapable of doing so right now, in part because of the above and of course in part because Russia will simply increase their support to overmatch anything Ukraine can throw in there.
I really really hope their leadership realizes this, and the populace understands and gives them the leeway to do so. Because one or two other major defeats in the near future and there’s a good chance things will unravel.
Rob,
You describe an imaginary world in which there are smart people in charge and there wise responsible electorate. It is not the case. There is a new paradigm: the bureaucracy is parasitic and does nothing. The voters are morons. The general election system does not work – only marauders and criminals are elected.
What “NATO” standards are you talking about? Take for example Austria. They spend almost all of their budget on a dozen of Eurofighters planes. But from Crimea we know that a disguised demonstration can take over an airport before the bureaucrats decide “demonstrators” should be resisted. Switzerland is another example. The military aircrafts there can fly only Mo-Fri working hours. A recent forced landing exposed that. “Not enough money”. So what, the generals get their salaries. Switzerland is not NATO member though but always had a strong army.
But overall, all the countries exept US spend everything on social-medical subsidies. There is nothing for the army.
There will be no improvement in Ukraine. Only further sabotage.
Check the news on sabotage from today only (in my separate post).
There is no mechanism in this “election” system to remove an incompetent. Everything can be sabotaged forever.
Bureaucracy and the system that we have does not function any more. It is a change of paradigm.
Just as an addendum for TNNA, I see in your last reply you pretty much echoed what I said (but in more detail), so disregard that first sentence 🙂
Couple of news from today:
1) Russia withdrew its signature of Minsk ceasefire agreement – means they mount an offensive. Pictures from the Airport may have encouraged not only the mob, but Putin himself.
2) Ukrainian secret service forbids to show footage of captures/dead Russian solders. It is a direct sabotage by the Ukrainian president Poroshenko – together with Putin, he covers up who fights in Ukraine.
3) Despite a confirmed invasion of additional thousands of Russian troops and heavy fighting, the Ukrainian parliament is “on vacation”. They do not do any emergency meeting. “Election” thing does not work, people elected are not qualified, system sabotages those who are.
4) there is no investigation into the previous defeats and disasters. The same people are in charge.
I can keep going. But Ukraine does not have time. There is Russian offensive-intimidation. If there is no resistance, it will be an invasion.
TNNA – sadly, I don’t disagree with what you wrote. It’s an extremely difficult situation with no easy answers. But you cannot effectively prosecute an offensive war with abysmal leadership in both civilian and military spheres. That’s a recipe for defeat and collapse. Nor is another “uprising” as you call it feasible – that would cause a complete unraveling IMO. Regroup, identify and promote competent commanders, and muddle along into slow improvement hoping that the current leadership has what it takes to so so – that’s the best-case scenario. I’m not saying it’s a snap-your-fingers-and-it’s-done magical thinking (although there *is* historical precedent from worse situations) I’m saying all the alternatives are *worse*, usually by a large margin.
Far as “NATO standards”, I was more referring to doctrine & command structure (and signals and so on) rather than hardware (although the latter would inevitably come down the road). The Soviet model (and a broken-down poorly led one at that) that Ukraine’s forces are currently mired in isn’t conducive to Western integration. But yes, this is a long term project.
Rob, you say: “hoping that the current leadership has what it takes to so so”. The answer is: it does not.
We will see some more drama in the next days. My hope is that Putin and his suicidal sect limit themselves to an intimidation display and would not advance far.
Absolutely right…..
The Ukrainians need to make this a new Russian Afghanistan…
They can’t afford a head on response, or a drawn out defensive line, they wont win that way against the Russians superior numbers in armor.
They need to continuously sap the enemy and create lots of cargo 200 and damage to material with battles chosen on their own terms.
It is a full on war with Russia now, and they need to wake up to that fact.
They need to use the land, cede areas they are unable to defend, strengthen their intelligence operations massively, attack were it makes sense, and let the Russian invaders slowly bleed…
thenewneandertalien
I realise not everyone is going to agree with my views, just as I agree with some of what you say and some I do not.
Debal’tseve is the only area I think they need to pull back from at the moment, the risk of another Illovaysk is just too high to justify trying to hold on to it, Ukraine has a large amount of men and armour tied up in fixed positions, where it does not have the room or ability to manoeuvre. Yes they will put up a good defence but everything I am seeing and hearing from local sources in the region are not good, they are facing a lot of artillery and armour with more having crossed the border in the last few days. I do accept your point about the rail and road hub being important, but the Russians have still managed to organise supply routes quite effectively without it. Additionally the road and rail connection crosses open countryside near Debal’tseve and would still be well within artillery range even if the Ukrainians were to pull back to the reservoir. It is my view the Debal’tseve withdrawal has to happen in the next 24-36 hours, otherwise Ukraine needs to prepare for more bad news
I do not see any other substantial risks along the front line at the moment, although I do accept things are difficult in Shchastya, Pisky, Hranitne and Sartana
The last point is the General Staff leading the Ukrainian army needs a serious shake up, there has been too many instances of bad leadership for it to just be incompetence or inexperience due to neglect of basic training over the past years. A case in point would be why the hell Ukraine armed forces STILL insist on parking trucks and armoured vehicles close together in a combat zone? Didn’t they learn in Luhansk region back in August? I yes I do mean still, as two days ago Ukraine had six military vehicles parked side by side close to the front line in Donetsk region, I will not say where as the last thing I want to do is aid the criminals, drunks and Russian’s any more than some of Ukraine’s armed forces leaders already do.
It is a nice piece overall.
The context here is that there is an aggravated sabotage of the marauding Ukrainian bureaucracy and the president himself. The Airport was supposed to pass to Russian under a secret deal between Putin and Poroshenko. Remember: Ukrainian president Poroshenko still owns a multi million business in Russia, notably a chocolate factory. The Ukrainian military, volunteers and active part of the population fight the Russian invasion despite severe sabotage of the bureaucracy. The airport has no value and is too hard to hold if the area around, towards Donetsk city is not taken. The Ukrainian generals and the president sabotaged improvement of position around the airport, while Ukrainian solders kept holding it and the media and social networks kept signing patriotic songs around it. The design of Putin and Poroshenko is probably realized now – the Airport is seeded to the Russians. One of the turning points may have been the fall of the ruff on the Ukrainian defendants, – the Russians put explosives and crushed the ruff on them.
There is a pointless loss of great and tough Ukrainian solders. The traitor Poroshenko will order to withdraw artillery tomorrow. A popular journalist and activist (though his web site is full of paid articles) Butusov overtly called Ukrainian president a traitor.
The conclusion of the author about “Russian military superiority” is questionable. The key in this battle is the artillery. The Ukrainians did well in this area overall. The Russian use residential area to hide from shelling (another key element of the hybrid war) but outside it, everything is attacked in artillery duels where Ukrainians do well.
Conclusion: 1) the sabotage of the parasitic bureaucracy is the main threat to the national security. It concerns Europe and the West to the same extent that the Ukraine.
2) In the modern warfare, the cities are used as cover against artillery. As the war spreads in Europe therefore (it is quite likely), it will hurt.
3) Ukrainian president Poroshenk needs to be removed. He is the main problem. He is a chaotic, psychologically unstable man, he submitted to Putin long ago. Half of his cabinet, if not more, is appoint with Moscow’s approval (notably the chief of staff, the foreign minister and many other). Poroshenko’s latest crazy move was to say yesterday in Davos that Russia needs to enter European Union. It is like that Poroshenko said that because Putin told him so.
Thanks to the author and hope my contribution helps.
Dealing with the airport, the crush of the roof was the final of the assault, which has been prepared by slowly positionning since 1 month and a half, an offer of surrendering a week ago, and an heavy bombardment followed by the lost of 90% of the new terminal (as well reported here).
According to me and my distant understanding of the events, the failure leads in the army chain of command which led the airport unsufficiently defended (at most they were around 60 men overall there), didn’t react to the event on time (no re-inforcement, no artillery barage until it was too late), and set up several too little counter attacks (so far, instead of one massive).
I don’t have enougth info on poroshenko himself nor on kiev political game to have an opinion on the man, but such lost weaken him politically more than it endanger ukraine… so if you wana see a conspiracy, you’d better look to his rightist oppposition
For a long time the Airport was a trap for the Russian and for the local separatist slave-recruits. There are intercepted reports on heavy losses of Russian elite unites (50-60% plausibility). The Ukrainians put mines around and the passage was problematic for attackers. The Russians used something to detonated mine fields. Overall, the building is hard to defend – steel and glass originally.
There was a pseudo ceasefire all the time and it was used to sabotage the Ukrainian artillery and other troops.
There is no “rightist opposition” in the Parliament. Only the Right Sector is an acceptable choice (Christian Nationalist in nature, based on Bandera ideals. Bandera – a Ukrainian nationalist, son of a priest, detained 4 years in a Nazi concentration camp, 2 of his brothers killed in Auschwitz, but portraied by Stalinist-Putinist propaganda as “Nazi”).
The voting morons vote only for criminals.
Just want to add that several days ago or more, the Ukrainian should have left the airport. There was no point to lose 20 men as prisoners or casualties.
I’ m really shocked of how radical You all can be. Of course it’ s a civil war, but a big problem is that You seem not to realize that You are fully inside a civil conflict, even if it has “foreign” Intervention. Maybe it’s time to sit down and speak about a real federalization Of Ukraine and stop the bloodshed.
As far as I see this is not a civil war. Russians are trying hard to make it look like it is one. If you see Cossacs, Chechen & foreign mercenaries in Russian tanks, backed with Russian military, fighting against Ukrainian army & Ukrainian people – how could you call this a civil war?
At the Spanish Civil War there were 60.000 Italians, 10.000 Germans and thousends of Soviets and other nations…..and it was still a civil war. The fact is that you are fighting a civil war and you deny this real fact. This is not a point to hide the russian help in manpower and military supplies to Donbass rebels. It`s just a point you have to admit to begin walking the path of negotiation and peace. Two big regions with army AREN´T just terrorists. Maybe they are the enemy, but it ´s non sense to say they are just terrorists. And I remind you that peace has to be signed with the enemy at the end of any conflict.
There has been now reported that Russia would have used chemical weapons to capture airport buildings. Does anyone has any more knowledge on this but it seems that many news papers are speculating because of symptoms of some UA soldiers. Also it seems that same kind of observation has done OSCE but I’m not sure is that yet official.
Some day cognitive science students will write boring essays about the Donetsk Airport media news and social networks discussions. About misinterpreting “holding”, “controlling”, “airport”, “terminal”, “object” and “area”.
But, for a while, just a question: are you guys really sure all buildings in the airport area are Russian-held ? Have you seen any Graham’s interview with Givi taken in the basement of the ex dispatchers’ tower ? or the fire brigade building ? Because if not, and if there are still some Ukranians fighting their Alamo, but nobody cares (at last we can write “haven’t I told ?”, hurry up), then … shame.