{"id":20962,"date":"2014-05-27T11:01:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T11:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=20962"},"modified":"2014-05-27T11:01:33","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T11:01:33","slug":"army-recaptures-ukraine-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=20962","title":{"rendered":"Army ‘recaptures Ukraine airport’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukraine’s interior ministry says the military is now in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of bloody clashes.<\/p>\n

At least 30 pro-Russia separatists have been killed, the insurgents say. Kiev said the army suffered no casualties.<\/p>\n

Armed separatists had tried to take over the airport early on Monday.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko then vowed to tackle “terrorists” in the east “within hours, not months”.<\/p>\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday again called on Mr Poroshenko to stop military operations in eastern Ukraine immediately and implement a roadmap for peace negotiated in Geneva on 17 April.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, he said a “real war” was under way in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.<\/p>\n

The regions declared independence after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in the wake of the removal of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n

President’s vow<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement: “The airport is under our full control. The enemy suffered heavy losses. We have none.”<\/p>\n

\"Map\"<\/div>\n
\"Pro-RussiaPro-Russia militants tried to take over the airport early on Monday morning<\/div>\n

He said operations were still continuing, and a BBC team heard sporadic gunfire on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told the BBC that reports of at least 30 dead in Monday’s fighting were accurate.<\/p>\n

Other reports of the death toll vary.<\/p>\n

Donetsk mayor Alexander Lukyanchenko said 40 people had been killed in the past day, while another separatist spokesman said 50 fighters had died.<\/p>\n

Monday’s clashes started after separatist militants stormed the Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk airport in the early hours.<\/p>\n

\"Pro-RussiaThe separatists may have been trying to prevent a visit by the new president<\/div>\n
\"DonetskThe Donetsk ice hockey stadium was set on fire on Tuesday, reportedly after an armed group broke in<\/div>\n

The Ukrainian military responded quickly with air strikes and an assault by heavily armed troops.<\/p>\n

The attempt to seize the airport may have been intended to prevent Mr Poroshenko from travelling there after he said his first trip would be to visit the restive east.<\/p>\n

Mr Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire and former foreign minister, was on Monday formally declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election with 54% of the vote.<\/p>\n

He vowed east Ukraine would not be “turned into Somalia”, adding: “The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours.”<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Petro Poroshenko: “We will fight for the trust of the people” of the east<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

However, Mr Poroshenko has also said he wants to talk to Russia to end the crisis.<\/p>\n

Moscow says it will accept the election results and engage in dialogue with Mr Poroshenko.<\/p>\n

But Mr Lavrov said: “The question of a visit to Russia by Poroshenko is not being considered and is not being discussed through diplomatic or any other channels.”<\/p>\n

The insurgency developed after Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev amid bloody street protests and calls for closer ties with the EU.<\/p>\n

At least two civilians were killed in Donetsk city and the separatist stronghold of Sloviansk on Monday.<\/p>\n

The body of a woman, reportedly killed by a stray bullet, lay near the railway in station Donetsk<\/p>\n

In Sloviansk, the bloodied body of another woman lay near an apartment block. At least one man was also wounded.<\/p>\n

\"Map\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukraine’s interior ministry says the military is now in full control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of bloody clashes. At least 30 pro-Russia separatists have been killed, the insurgents say. Kiev said the army suffered no casualties. Armed separatists had tried to take over the airport early on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":20964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1029,14,1028],"class_list":["post-20962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-harassment-policies","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah","tag-the-independent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}