Soldiers of the Ukrainian army blocked at the airport in May-June fought sluggishly with the militias, who were also in no hurry to storm the air harbor of Donetsk. The planes could not land on the runway, so they dropped "humanitarian" aid to the blocked units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, passing over the airport at low level flight. From the ground, the transport workers fired at them from small arms - in general, June 2014 passed in such a rhythm. Due to some disunity and weak cohesion, the militia did not even manage to fully surround the airport and block the supply channels to the besieged by land. Over time, the militia intensified the onslaught, ironing out the buildings with the entrenched soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with automatic cannons, mortars and heavy machine guns. The airport from this gradually turned into ruins, the pictures of which were spread all over the world.
Aerial photography, taken with the help of a drone, is superimposed on a satellite image of an entire terminal of Donetsk airport in the GoogleEarth service and demonstrates the scale of the destruction.
By the beginning of July, the situation around the Donetsk airport began to change rapidly, the reason was the activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From the side of Tonenkoye, which is located west of Avdiivka, the Ukrainians began to cut through the unblocking corridor to the airport. At first, the DPR units did not have enough forces and means to repel the offensive - the front was inexorably approaching Donetsk. Already on June 22, Strelkov officially announced the lifting of the blockade from the airport by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In fact, the airport has now turned into a stronghold of the Ukrainian army - the punitive forces of the "Right Sector" banned in Russia and "Dnepr-1" were also deployed to it. The 93rd separate mechanized brigade "Kholodny Yar" (Kharkov) arrived together with the 17th Kryvyi Rih brigade. It was this company and several other divisions that later received the specific name "cyborgs". It is interesting to trace the "combat path" of the "Dnepr-1" unit, which on July 24 captured the village of Peski, on the way knocking out the militia from Karlovka, Pervomaisky and Netaylovo. The capture of the village of Peski was of strategic importance and made it possible to partially unblock the surrounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the Sergei Prokofiev airport. He held Peski "Dnepr-1" until August 21, 2015, until an order was received to transfer positions to the 93rd brigade. Punishers of "Dnieper-1" also distinguished themselves in sabotage sorties to Donetsk, during which they destroyed a truck with soldiers of the "Vostok" battalion, and also seized a patrol jeep. But the sabotage ardor noticeably subsided after the ambush, in which 4 people were wounded along with the company commander Shilov.
The impetus for active action on the part of the militia was the successes in the Ilovaisk region, which somewhat demoralized the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and led the military leadership of Ukraine into temporary confusion. It was decided to forge the iron while it was hot, and to organize an assault at the end of August. In addition, units freed after the liquidation of the Ilovaisk boiler came to the aid of the militia. At first, the airport was subjected to artillery shelling, which inflicted fairly conditional damage on the Ukrainian units - most of the soldiers managed to hide in vast dungeons. Even with a chronic shortage of ammunition from the militia, the buildings from the artillery got serious. The once beautiful complex gradually turned into ruins that were difficult to pass. The toughest nut to crack was the control tower, which was designed to withstand the impact of a passenger plane, and therefore firmly held the shells of the militia.
Artillery positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces behind the airport, which methodically fired at Donetsk, and the location of militia units remained a problem. In the books of Yevgeny Norin and Anatoly Tsygank, the words of an unnamed DPR fighter are quoted, who very accurately described the current operational situation:
“Ukry sit underground. Spotters, sometimes snipers and mortars, rise to the surface. Plus, they monitor the surface through cameras. Ours, after a thin artillery barrage (because there are a shortage of shells), they start [hitting] from Peski and Avdeevka with everything they can, they retreat. And so every day. Result: 1-3 "two hundredths" and 10-20 "three hundredths" daily. And everything would be very bad, but here the ukrokomandovanie comes into effect, which for some reason always strives to have tanks and infantry fighting vehicles at the airport. Which it drives there through the territory, which is shot by ours, after which the remaining boxes rush along the takeoff until they are burned. Well, small teams of tough guys on both sides play Counter-Strike offline in the ruins of terminals with roughly equal scores. So until our people take Peski and Avdiivka (or at least suppress the ukrov's artillery there), there will be no sense."
One of the most serious miscalculations of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was the chaotic and thoughtless use of armored vehicles in the well-swept fields adjacent to the airport. Mikhail Zhirokhov wrote about the participation of the 1st battalion of the 79th brigade in the events of that time:
“At the end of September, our battalion entered the airport - Peski, Tonenkoe. And the first serious losses at the airport were on 28 September. The third company of the 1st Battalion was ambushed on 28 September. It's not even an ambush - two armored personnel carriers drove into an enemy position. All equipment travels to the airport terminal at night, without light and at high speed. The driver made a mistake, and they drove straight onto a Russian tank. Then they shot 2 armored personnel carriers, killed 9 guys, including our Zaporozhets Sasha Pivovarov."
This is followed by the editorial comment, according to which, in fact, two T-72 tanks of the militia were moving to the Bronya checkpoint in the hope of destroying the tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But then two armored personnel carriers of the 79th brigade arrived and were shot. According to the Ukrainian side, later these tanks were burned by a certain valiant tanker with the call sign "Adam". Further, parts of the 79th brigade were withdrawn from the airport to the Zaporozhye region for replenishment, and then returned to the vicinity of the destroyed air harbor.
The commander of the 1st battalion of the 79th brigade with the call sign "Mike" very accurately describes the tragic situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which developed in a hot autumn time, and which ultimately led to the surrender of the airport:
“The most important question that worries me about the DAP: why was the Donetsk airport not initially considered as a bridgehead for defense? After the first battle on May 26, 2014, no one improved the engineering barriers in it. Only in November we began to strengthen it - we brought in sand in bags. It was possible, however, to strengthen the DAP earlier, to dig in places, to bring concrete blocks. And in November it was no longer possible to deliver them or the crane. It's hard to defend a glass building. Drywall crumbled, bullets flew right through, columns ricocheted. We brought in the sand until our dump truck was hit. For the militants, the DAP was a training ground, they trained there. And we defended every piece of land at the airport. That is why he was important to us. I think there would be no Donetsk airport - we would not be in Avdiivka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk now."
