The First Battle of Donetsk Airport took place between fighters associated with the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

and

Ukrainian government The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine (), is the highest body of state executive power in Ukraine. As the Cabinet of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, it was formed on 18 April 1991, by the Law ...

forces that took place at

Donetsk International Airport Donetsk Sergei Prokofiev International Airport is a former airport located northwest of Donetsk, Ukraine, that was destroyed in 2014 during the war in Donbas. It was built in the 1940s, rebuilt in 1973, and then again from 2011 to 2012 for Eu ...

on 26–27 May 2014, as part of the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

that began after the

2014 Ukrainian revolution The Revolution of Dignity (), also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in the capit ...

. A second battle broke out at the airport on 28 September 2014.

Background

In February 2014, Russia started the

Russo-Ukrainian war The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

by annexing Ukraine's Crimea. In April 2014 Russia began organizing pro-Russian protesters and insurgents in

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

and

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; , ), also known as Lugansk (, ; , ), is a city in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As of 2022, the population was estimated to be making Luhansk the Cities in Ukraine, 12th-largest city in Ukraine. Luhansk served as the administra ...

oblasts of Ukraine. This resulted in

, where insurgents captured and occupied numerous government buildings, towns, and territories in the region. In

city itself, many government buildings were under separatist control.

remained outside of insurgent control.

Events

During the morning of 26 May, pro-Russian fighters captured the terminal buildings of

, and demanded the withdrawal of government forces from the area. They also blocked off the road to the airport. Soon after, the

National Guard of Ukraine The National Guard of Ukraine (NGU; , ; /NHU ) is the Ukrainian national gendarmerie and internal military force. It is part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for public security. Originally created as an agency under the dire ...

issued an ultimatum to the insurgents, which said that they should surrender immediately. This was rejected, causing paratroopers to launch an assault on the airport, accompanied by airstrikes against pro-Russian positions. Attack helicopters were also used to target insurgent anti-aircraft guns. Lorries with Donetsk reinforcements were seen heading towards the airport. As evening fell, government forces pushed the Donetsk fighters out. They then launched a counterattack that was repelled by government forces. Sporadic gunfire was heard during the night, making it unclear if government soldiers were in full control of the airport. The next day, both Ukrainian and pro-Russian leaders confirmed that Ukrainian forces were in full control of the airport, but by mid-morning, machine gun fire could still be heard on one of the main roads leading to the airport. Insurgents built barricades on the road to the airport. Donetsk mayor

Oleksandr Lukyanchenko Oleksandr Oleksiyovych Lukyanchenko (, ; born 30 August 1947) is the '' de facto'' former mayor of the city of Donetsk, Ukraine. Under Ukrainian law, he is the ''de jure'' Mayor since 2014. Life He was born to a Russian-speaking Ukrainian fa ...

urged all residents to stay in their homes. During the fighting,

Druzhba Arena Druzhba Arena () was an indoor arena in Donetsk, Ukraine. It was built to develop hockey in the region. It was destroyed in May 2014 during the War in Donbas. History Druzhba was built in 1975 as Druzhba Palace of Sports (), by a standard des ...

, home of the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

team

HC Donbass Hockey Club Donbass (; ''Romanization of Ukrainian, tr. Hokeinyi Klub Donbas'') is a Ukraine, Ukrainian professional ice hockey team based in Druzhkivka, that played in the Ukrainian Hockey League and briefly the KHL. HC Donbass is a six time Ukr ...

, was ransacked by pro-Russian insurgents, who looted the building, destroyed surveillance equipment, and set it on fire. In the days following the battle, anger toward the Ukrainian government grew among some local residents. According to one resident, many people were thinking of joining the insurgency if government military operations continued. Sporadic fighting also continued, with at least one insurgent being killed in a firefight on 29 May. Six other insurgents died on 31 May, after they attempted to retrieve the bodies of their comrades at the site of the airport battle.

Casualties

Mayor of Donetsk

said the death toll in the clashes stood at forty, almost all of them separatist insurgents, as well as two civilians. The city morgue reported a death toll of thirty-three insurgents and two civilians. Forty-three insurgents were wounded. DPR leaders

Alexander Borodai Alexander Yurevich Borodai ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Борода́й, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bərɐˈdaj; ; born 25 July 1972) is a Russian member of the State Duma of the 8th convocation for the party United ...

and

Denis Pushilin Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin (born 9 May 1981) is a Russian politician who has served as the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) since 2018. He has held the position in an acting capacity ever since the Russian annexation of the DPR in ...

put the death toll at 100, with half being insurgents and the other half being civilians. This number was considered inflated by the Ukrainian government, and an attempt to lure Russia to intervene in the Donbas. Ukrainian officials reported no losses. 15–35 of the insurgents were reportedly killed in a single incident when two lorries carrying wounded fighters away from the airport were ambushed in a friendly-fire incident by the Vostok Battalion, which confused them for Ukrainian forces (separatist "prime minister" Aleksander Boroday announced that they had been ambushed by Ukrainian ground forces and hit by airstrikes). Thirty-four of the dead insurgents were Russian nationals and Donetsk insurgents claimed the bodies were returned to Russia. It was later revealed the bodies were returned covertly to hide the fact that they were Russian, eventually ending up in a

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

morgue in the Russian Federation. Among the dead on the pro-Russian side were former

Russian Airborne Troops The Russian Airborne Forces () is the airborne separate combat arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It is a rapid response force and strategic reserve that is under the President of Russia, reporting directly to the Chief of the General Staff, an ...

of the 45th regiment special forces,

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...

veterans, and world kick-boxing champion Nikolai Leonov who was a native of

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

petrovsk.

Chechen involvement

It was claimed and later verified that

Kadyrovtsy Kadyrovites or Kadyrovtsy () or Akhmat (Russian language, Russian: Ахмат) is an informal term of Chechnya-based detachments of National Guard of Russia ("Rosguard"), Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Russian Ministry of Defence. T ...

came to Donetsk to fight alongside the insurgents. Although

Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician and current head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechen independence movement, through his father who was the ...

denied that he sent Chechens to Donetsk, one Chechen fighter claimed that Kadyrov had given them an order to go to Ukraine.

References

External links