Second Battle of Donetsk Airport
| Second Battle of Donetsk Airport | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Russo-Ukrainian War and War in Donbas | |||||||||
A map of the Donetsk Airport area | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Ukraine |
Donetsk People's Republic Per Ukraine: Russia (commanded by Brig. Gen B. Varner) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Viktor Muzhenko Yevhen Moisiuk Oleh Kuzminykh (POW) Valerii Rud Ruslan Prusov Dmytro Yarosh (WIA) |
Mikhail Tolstykh Arsen Pavlov Vladimir Zhoga Alexander Khodakovsky | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Per Ukraine:
Per DPR:
|
Per DPR:
Per Ukraine:
| ||||||||
The Second Battle of Donetsk Airport was an engagement between the Ukrainian military and Russian military and its proxy forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) during the War in Donbas. An earlier battle in May 2014 had left Donetsk International Airport in Ukrainian control. Despite a ceasefire agreement, the Minsk Protocol, in place since 5 September 2014, fighting broke out between the warring parties on 28 September 2014.
At the start of the battle, the airport lay between the separatist and Ukrainian lines of control, and was the last part of Donetsk city held by Ukrainian government forces. Heavy fighting over the airport continued into the new year, with some of the worst fighting taking place in January 2015. On 21 January, DPR forces overran the Ukrainian positions at the airport. The remaining Ukrainian forces were either killed, forced to retreat, or captured by DPR forces. The battle has been called the "Little Stalingrad".