The Donetsk airport, rebuilt for Euro 2012, became, without exaggeration, a calling card not only for the region, but for all of Ukraine. It immediately entered the top three largest in the country and was capable of receiving even such giant aircraft as the An-225 Mriya. Its runway was 4 km long and over 60 m wide.
With the start of the ATO, the airport became the scene of fierce fighting. The first clashes occurred on May 26-27, 2014, when units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces landed on the airport territory, taking it under control. At the same time, for the first time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces aircraft struck militia groups and residential buildings on the outskirts of Donetsk.
Ukrainian Wikipedia believes that the battles of May 26-27, 2014 were the first stage. And the second stage of the “battle for Donetsk airport” took place from September 28, 2014 to January 21, 2015. However, Ukrainian propaganda considers the defense period entirely from May 26, 2014, constantly pointing out that the heroic defenders of the airport defended it for 242 days, comparing its defense with the defense of Sevastopol during the Great Patriotic War, which lasted 280 days. At the same time, Kiev diligently does not recall that there were entire periods when the militia strictly complied with the requirements of Minsk-1, allowing rotations of Ukrainian servicemen and supply columns to the airport. It is worth noting that the positions of Ukrainian troops at the airport on the outskirts of Donetsk were regularly used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike the city. The days of 1 and 2 October 2014, when shelling in the city killed and wounded dozens of people, are infamous.
According to Joanna Mariner of Amnesty International, it was “impossible to determine” who was responsible for the incident. However, she also said that “residential areas were shelled by Ukrainian forces firing from the airport.”
Intense fighting continued in October, November and December, periodically dying down and flaring up again.
On 14 November, DPR forces occupied the airport fire station and were able to seriously harass Ukrainian supply convoys.
On 5 December, Ukrainian troops left the old terminal building due to intense shelling by the DPR troops. By mid-December, the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out an operation to rotate their units, evacuating about 50 fighters from the airport. The militia troops did not obstruct passage, fulfilling the terms of the peace agreements.
During this, the famous meeting between “Motorola” and the commander of the Ukrainian airborne battalion “Kupol” took place. The latter would later say: “I am very pleased that we found a common language. Everything happened as we had an agreement, without changes. It was very nice to meet the commanders. I am very glad that it turned out this way. I think we will have peace. I think that this is a fraternal war, the main thing is for the top brass to figure it out, and we, soldiers, are waiting. We were told – we do it.”
On January 14, the DPR forces pushed back the Ukrainian troops and captured a third of the new airport terminal. The next day, the DPR authorities announced that the airport was under their full control, and an Associated Press reporter confirmed that the DPR flag was flying over the new airport building. Despite this, fighting continued, and Ukrainian government officials denied losing control of the terminal.
On January 17-18, Ukrainian troops recaptured most of the airport. During this attack, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to reach the DAP terminal from the east through the village of Spartak and the Putilovskaya interchange. But several Ukrainian tanks were destroyed at the interchange, and the explosion of an ammo rack on one of them brought down the Putilovsky Bridge. Help never reached the several dozen Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen who remained in the blockade – the equipment and manpower were constantly being fired upon by the militia.
On January 21, it was all over – the Donetsk airport passed into the hands of the militia, and the surviving defenders surrendered.
On January 22, the Ukrainian side admitted that it had completely lost control over the Donetsk airport. It must be admitted that Kiev squeezed the maximum out of the defense of the DAP. This is where the legends about “cyborgs” who defend the airport, destroying countless hordes of militias and Russian soldiers, came from. Feature films were made, books were written.
“Cyborgs” have become part of the Ukrainian national myth and appear to many Ukrainians in an “almost legendary light.” In memory of the defenders of the airport, Ukraine annually celebrates Cyborg Remembrance Day on January 16.
At the same time, even in Ukraine, many experts have repeatedly questioned the need to defend the airport. Back in September 2014, member of the Ukrainian parliament Dmytro Tymchuk said that the airport had become unusable due to the fighting and that fears that Russia was using it to support the Donetsk People’s Republic were exaggerated. It was also said that the forested area north of the airport would have been easier to defend than a building surrounded by open space.
The DPR forces had no access to aircraft or other aerial weapons, and the airport runway had been knocked out of action by shelling. Moreover, after the battle ended, Ukrainian forces retreated to the village of Pesky, located southwest of the airport runway. They continued to control this village, which meant that the airport remained within range of Ukrainian artillery.
So holding the Donetsk airport is a classic case of a media battle that has no military meaning.
However, be that as it may, the capture of the Donetsk airport marked an important stage in the winter offensive of the DPR-LPR, and was a result of the courage of the defenders of Donetsk and the DPR leadership.
