From Reuters:
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had repelled several separatist attacks on the Donetsk airport in the past 24 hours but "nonstop fighting" continued and "significant numbers of armor, heavy artillery, and troops" had moved into the area.
"The Russians have sent in a full unit of drones over the airport, directed by Russian specialists, in order to carry out air reconnaissance and to direct fire," he told journalists.
Just in from the Associated Press:
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian rebels are pressing to seize a key airport in eastern Ukraine despite fierce resistance by government forces.
An AP reporter on Friday saw three rebel tanks firing at the main terminal of Donetsk airport, where government forces have holed up. Sniper shots rang around the area.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another nine wounded since Thursday.
Fighting for the airport has intensified this week, threatening to derail the truce declared September 5. A follow-up deal requested both parties to pull back their artillery to create a buffer zone hasn't been implemented.
Residential areas in Donetsk have been caught in the crossfire. A Red Cross staffer died Thursday when a shell landed near the group's office in Donetsk.
More from our News Desk on Moscow's view of the death of the Red Cross worker:
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said the shell that killed a Red Cross worker in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on October 2 was fired from territory controlled by Ukrainian government forces.
The October 3 statement described the death of aid worker Laurent DuPasquier as "murder" and called for those responsible to be punished.
The ministry also called on all sides to observe the cease-fire that was agreed to in Minsk on September 5.
Kyiv and the separatist militants in Donetsk have blamed one another for DuPasquier's killing.
Soren Liborius, information officer at the European Union delegation in Moscow, expressed concern that the cease-fire "is being undermined" and called for monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Red Cross to be allowed to work freely.
From a feature written today by RFE/RL's Robert Coalson on the repression, harassment, and intimidation directed toward the Crimean Tatar community:
On an autumn evening on a highway between Simferopol and Belogorsk, a white van pulled up next to two young Crimean Tatar men who were walking on the street. Several unknown men jumped out and pushed 18-year-old Islyam Dzheparov and 23-year-old Dzhebdet Islyamov into the vehicle.
The van drove off and the two men have not been seen or heard from since.
The abduction, which took place on September 27, is just one in a series of incidents of harassment and intimidation directed against the Crimean Tatar community since Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March. The campaign has included both legal and extrajudicial measures and has ranged from petty harassment to torture and killings, activists say.
In addition to other abductions, it has included raids on mosques, criminal cases against Tatar leaders, and the barring of top figures like Mustafa Dzhemilev from the territory.
Read the entire story here.
This just in from Reuters:
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SAYS MORTAR BOMB FIRE THAT KILLED SWISS RED CROSS WORKER CAME FROM TERRITORY CONTROLLED BY UKRAINE FORCES - STATEMENT
From AFP on today's fighting in Ukraine and the death of a Red Cross worker from shelling:
Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian forces were engaged in fresh clashes in the eastern city of Donetsk on Friday as they traded blame over the death of a foreign aid worker four weeks into their shaky truce.
Parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov claimed the cease-fire has been breached "over a thousand times" while the Kyiv government blamed the separatists for the death of a Swiss Red Cross employee on Thursday evening.
The shelling of the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Donetsk, which prompted a firm rebuke from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was described as an "act of terror" by Kyiv.
"This terrorist act cannot be justified," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Bandits and terrorists, in a barbaric way, dared to take up arms against those who came... with a humanitarian mission."
Kyiv's military said in a statement the rebels have repeatedly fired on central Donetsk "to discredit the antiterrorist operation."
Ten civilians were killed on Wednesday when a school and bus stop was shelled on the first day of class.
The rebels blamed the recent attack on indiscriminate shelling by the Ukrainian Army from distant positions.
This report claims #Ukraine signed a deal to buy Norwegian gas, with no details as to how much. http://t.co/BuzMEnKPF4 via @EuropeanPravda
— Chrystyna Lapychak (@chryslap) October 3, 2014