Ukraine rebels claim to control Donetsk airport

Jan. 15, 2015: Smoke rises over the new terminal of Donetsk airport. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

DONETSK, Ukraine –  Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claimed Monday that they have seized control of the Donetsk airport after days of intense fighting. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed a retreat.

“All attempts of the Ukrainian army to take the airport and to get revenge for the defeat of the last year… have failed,” rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said at a press conference early Monday in Donetsk.

He accused Ukraine of using rocket and artillery fire with an intensity that rebel forces had “never experienced before.”

The city of Donetsk, the separatist stronghold, was shaken by heavy outgoing and incoming artillery fire over the weekend as a battle raged for the air terminal and surrounding areas. Sporadic explosions could still be heard from the direction of the airport early Monday.

Reduced to rubble, the airport is of limited strategic importance in the short term, but has great symbolic value. In the longer term, the government fears that the separatists could use the airport to expand their control over eastern Ukraine and create an air supply route with Russia.

Ukrainian officials did not confirm a retreat. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko would say only that the situation remained tense.

Yuriy Biryukov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wrote on his official Facebook account early Monday that wounded soldiers had been evacuated from the air terminal overnight, but did not say how many troops had remained.

“We will not abandon our own, nobody has forgotten them,” he wrote. “Everything will be (ours), but just not right away. We are learning.”

Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 66 wounded in the previous 24 hours, Lysenko said. He would not say how many of those casualties occurred at the airport.

The U.N. estimates that more than 4,700 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April.

The separatists increased the stakes last week by successfully taking over large sections of the airport, where Ukrainian troops had remained despite coming under rocket attacks for months on end. The Ukrainians then unleashed a counter-offensive, supported by a hasty reinforcement of troops and heavy armor.

Lysenko said that according to a cease-fire agreement reached in September, the airport was to be left under Ukrainian control. Russia and the separatists dispute this.

Russia and Ukraine both expressed willingness on Monday to work toward implementation of the cease-fire agreement, including a provision to pull back heavy weapons. But each side put the onus on the other for the lack of progress.

The resumption of fighting and the inability of the warring sides to find common ground scuttled plans for the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to meet last week.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday they would discuss how preparations for such a summit were developing. “But in any case we must decide this week whether we are on the path toward preparing for a summit or not,” he said.

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Ukraine rebels claim to control Donetsk airport

Colombian rebels "to keep weapons"

6 September 2013 Last updated at 20:24 ET Mr Santos is running for a second term in office in 2014 Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said the Farc rebels would be allowed to keep their weapons until a peace agreement was ratified.

Mr Santos said no-one could expect the rebels to give up their weapons before a peace accord had been given final approval in a referendum.

He added that a ceasefire would be implemented once a deal was reached in talks under way in Cuba.

Critics say a referendum should not be held until the rebels disarm.

Mr Santos last month surprised the rebels when he proposed legislation demanding that any accord would have to be approved by the Colombian people in a referendum.

‘Enemies of peace’

“If we have an agreement, then we enter a third phase of implementation,” President Santos said on Friday.

“And I have promised that the Colombian people would have the opportunity to have their say.”

If peace negotiators engaged in talks since November last year reach a deal, it is likely that a referendum will be held on the same day of the May 2014 presidential vote.

But it could also be held in March, when Colombians vote on a new Congress.

The Colombian army seized grenades and weapons from the Farc in July

“The Colombian people will see the final work, the final package and decide. And I am certain that the Colombian people will back me up.”

Mr Santos criticised “the enemies of peace.” He said those opposed to an agreement to end five decades of conflict in Colombia “are trying to demonise the process and create fear in the country.”

“If we reach some agreement, then we will have an immediate ceasefire. That is what we have agreed,” Mr Santos said in an interview to BluRadio station in Bogota.

The rebels have called for a ceasefire throughout the negotiations, which began in Havana in November.

But the government said the rebels would use the truce to rearm and vowed to continue fighting until they signed an accord renouncing to the armed struggle.

Officially there has been agreement on only one of six points on the agenda – land reform.

But the government’s chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, and the rebels hailed progress in the talks in a joint statement issued last month.

Five decades of internal conflict in Colombia have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

And a study by Colombia’s National Centre for Historical Memory suggests 220,000 people have died in the violence.

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Colombian rebels "to keep weapons"

Peru police kill Shining Path rebels

12 August 2013 Last updated at 11:50 ET Three Shining Path rebels, including a top leader, have been killed by the security forces in Peru, according to the interior minister.

Wilfredo Pedraza said the guerrillas were shot dead in the country’s south.

Among those killed is Alejandro Borda Casafranca, better known as Comrade Alipio, accused of being the number two in the Maoist rebel movement.

The Shining Path was largely defeated in the 1990s, but remnants continue to be active in parts of Peru.

Drug link

The clash happened overnight near Huanta in the Ayacucho region, where most of Peru’s coca is grown.

The security forces say the Maoist group has allied itself with drug traffickers and now finances itself by growing and smuggling coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine.

Much of the illegal drug is produced in the Ene-Apurimac valley in southern Peru – known as VRAE – a stronghold of the Shining Path.

President Ollanta Humala has made bringing peace to the VRAE one of his top priorities since coming to office in July 2011.

One of the original leaders of the Shining Path, Comrade Artemio, was sentenced to life in prison in June.

Inspired by Maoism, the rebels tried to lead a “People’s War” to overthrow what they called “bourgeois democracy” and establish a communist state.

They posed a serious threat to the Peruvian state in the 1980s but their numbers have since dwindled, most of their leaders have been captured and their territory has been reduced to small areas in the VRAE.

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Peru police kill Shining Path rebels