Fierce battle to retake airport
Kiev – The outskirts of Donetsk, wreathed in thick black smoke, resounded to loud explosions and the sound of machinegun fire yesterday as the government sent in warplanes and paratroopers to dislodge heavily armed Russian separatists from the biggest airport in east Ukraine.
At least one civilian died in the fighting, which began shortly after Petro Poroshenko, who won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential elections, said that the insurgency could be crushed in a ‘‘matter of hours’’.
Fresh from the most commanding election victory in Ukraine’s short history, the billionaire chocolate-maker promised to hold talks with the Kremlin in the next three weeks to ease the crisis in the eastern Donbass region.
Pro-Moscow rebels have seized government buildings, strategic facilities and some towns there since April. They have declared independence from Ukraine and imposed martial law in what they call New Russia. Kiev blames Moscow for the unrest.
A joint statement by the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council yesterday welcomed Poroshenko’s electoral triumph, and cited the elections as a big step towards ‘‘de-escalating tension’’.
However, that looked a vain hope yesterday as the fiercest fighting of the twomonth-old campaign against the insurgency erupted in one of the country’s main cities.
Scores of separatists seized control of Sergei Prokofiev international airport in Donetsk overnight, closing it to all air traffic.
A spokeswoman said that the men were from the East Battalion, which fought a deadly battle with a proUkrainian militia on Friday.
Government forces set a deadline for them to surrender, and when it expired the area was strafed by two Sukhoi Su25 jets and a MiG29. Paratroopers were then flown in and fighting continued for several hours, during which three Ukrainian Mi24 helicopter gunships fired rockets and cannon at the runway and the main terminal.
The battle spread to the surrounding streets and a car park attendant was killed in crossfire.
Poroshenko, who is expected to take office in midJune, said that his most urgent task was making peace in the east, where more than a hundred people have been killed in fighting in recent weeks.
His longer-term goals include European integration in an effort to tackle Ukraine’s chronic economic, social and judicial problems, and forging a new global security system to protect the country from Russian aggression. He also wants to reclaim Crimea.
Speaking at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, he said that ‘‘without our biggest neighbour there is no chance of stopping the war’’. He added: ‘‘Most probably a meeting with the Russian leadership will take place in the first half of June. It will not just be shaking hands. Mr Putin and I know each other quite well.’’ President Vladimir Putin indicated on Friday that he would recognise the result of Ukraine’s election. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, said yesterday that Russia was ‘‘ready for dialogue with Petro Poroshenko’’.
Poroshenko, 48, a veteran politician who has served governments of wildly varying character, is anxious to present himself as a break from Ukraine’s stained political past. ‘‘New time, new state, new people,’’ he said.
All of his business assets will be sold except for the Fifth Channel, a TV news station that backed the protesters in Ukraine’s revolution this year.
Millions of people in the Donbass region were prevented from voting by insurgents but, even so, about 60 per cent of Ukraine’s 35.5 million eligible voters took part in the election, which international observers said was legitimate.
Preliminary results showed that Poroshenko had won about 54 per cent of the votes in the field of 21 candidates. His chief rival, Yuliya Tymoshenko, trailed a distant second with 13 per cent.
Far-Right parties notched up less than 3 per cent of the vote.