Kremlin-backed

insurgents have taken over Donetsk Airport, killing dozens of Ukrainian

troops, members of the army’s volunteer support network said on Jan. 21.

Such a loss would mark Ukraine’s most significant and bloodiest tragedy since the battle for Illovaisk in August 2014, in which hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed. Ukrainian troops’ defense of the airport, besieged since September, had become a symbol of pride for Ukrainians, with its occupants immortalized as ‘the cyborgs’.