The claim made in the video: that the anti-Ukrainian forces now control the new terminal.

The following is a video posted by the Russian news agency LifeNews, which has extremely close ties to the Russian security apparatus, and the Russian-backed separatists. The video takes us deep inside today’s battle for the Donetsk International Airport. It, and a video we posted earlier also filmed by LifeNews , are must-watch footage.

Another version of the video:

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we see:

The first few frames of the video appear to show the militants firing from a high position, perhaps from the 4th floor of the new terminal.

At 30 seconds in we may be seeing the fight for the second floor.

At 47 seconds in we see that the video is looking up at the old terminal. We believe that this is filmed from the underground parking garage, which may now be in control of the Russian-backed fighters.

At 2:04 we see a tank and a man with an RPG firing at the far side of the terminal. It’s interesting that the soldier with the RPG is so exposed, perhaps suggesting that at various points in the fight the Ukrainian military ‘Cyborgs’ are completely suppressed and cannot fire out of the terminal.

The takeaway: at least during parts of the day, the Russian-backed militants had control over large parts of the airport and were moving around with near impunity. This is the second time in three days that parts of the new terminal have been taken over by the militants.

In our previous entry we noted the report of a ‘Cyborg’ counter-attack. This video and that claim are not mutually exclusive, since the entire LifeNews video appears to have been shot early in the day while the sun is high.

Meanwhile, the positions Ukraine has used to defend the airport in Peski and Avdeyevka have been absolutely hammered, reducing the towns to rubble and potentially limiting the Ukrainian military’s ability to directly support the Cyborgs.

It’s not clear who controls which parts of Donetsk Airport, and things appear to be very quiet there for more than an hour. One thing is clear: Donetsk International Airport has come close to falling into the hands of Russian-backed fighters twice this week, and it’s clear that the anti-Ukrainian forces are expanding their fight both here and elsewhere.The Cyborgs have lasted this long, but they have perhaps never been in a tougher spot than they are right now, and as far as we are aware the Ukrainian military shows no signs of launching a major offensive against Donetsk any time soon.

— James Miller