Sergei L. Loiko has written an excellent piece for today's "LA Times" on the battle for Donetsk airport:
Only three floors remain in the blackened skeleton of the seven-story, glass-walled airport terminal, opened with a burst of national pride two years ago for the Euro 2012 soccer championship.
Ukrainian commandos control two of them: the ground and second floors.
The pro-Russia separatists they're fighting have infiltrated the third floor despite entrances barricaded with debris and booby traps. The separatists have also found a way into the basement, with its system of narrow passageways leading beyond the airport grounds.
They are enemies sharing the same building, playing a claustrophobic game of cat and mouse in shadowy rooms and burned-out boarding jetways.
Just after midnight on a recent night, a separatist fighter suddenly appeared on a balcony of the third floor and shot a Mukha grenade down at the onetime departure lounge where the Ukrainian troops were trying to sleep on cold concrete floors.
The grenade hit a wall and exploded. Shrapnel and debris flew everywhere. Without thinking, a commando nicknamed Batman threw a hand grenade toward the balcony. But it exploded short of its target and sent more shrapnel showering over his comrades.
The shouting had barely subsided when a commander announced that government Grad missiles were on the way to hit enemy positions surrounding the terminal.
"You know how they do it!" the commander shouted. "They'll certainly miss. So run for cover."
A few seconds later, the building shook from the explosion right outside, and for a moment it seemed that the structure would finally collapse. But it withstood the blast, and no one was hurt in any of the attacks.
After five months of fighting, the battle between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine has reached what may be its last stand in this shattered commercial airport that once held families waiting for holiday flights.
It has little strategic value, but it has become a symbol of the struggle over Ukraine's future.
"Today for us the future of our country depends on whether we will be able to hold on to this airport or not," said Alexei Varitsky, 20, a former construction worker who recently joined the Ukrainian militia that's helping to defend the airport. "That is why I am here."
Read the entire article and view an excellent accompanying photo gallery here
In case you missed it yesterday, here is how the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe viewed Ukraine's parliamentary elections:
Here's another update from our news desk:
Kyiv has condemned as "destructive and provocative" Russia's support for elections organized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, saying Moscow's stance could wreck chances for peace.
The November 2 vote was scheduled in defiance of Ukrainian national elections on October 26 which were won by pro-Western parties that are dedicated to holding the country together and negotiating a settlement to eastern Ukraine's conflict.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on October 28 described the vote planned by rebels as "pseudo-elections," saying they "grossly contradict the spirit and letter" of international agreements reached in Minsk in September.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow plans to recognize the elections that are being organized by separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk.
Poroshenko has previously said any local elections in Ukraine must be conducted according to Ukrainian law.
(Reuters, AP, AFP, TASS)