Oliver Carroll has been all over events at Donetsk airport this weekend.
"Unity" march, but still...
From our newsroom:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Kyiv will reassert control over the country's eastern region, where fighting intensified between government troops and pro-Russian separatist rebels over the weekend.
Poroshenko told a several thousand-strong peace rally in central Kyiv on January 18 that Ukraine would not "give up an inch" of its land to the separatists.
Meanwhile, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian troops launched a "mass operation" overnight and retook almost all the territory of Donetsk airport lost to separatists in recent weeks.
The army's offensive at the airport brought the fighting close to the city of Donetsk itself.
Local residents reported intensified shelling, including from residential areas in central parts of Donetsk, a key separatist stronghold.
Four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 32 injured in the past 24 hours, Lysenko said on January 18.
Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, Interfax, and unian.net
As reports swirl suggesting Ukrainian forces have retaken Donetsk airport, here's something from our archive that highlights the importance of what has become a towering symbol in the current conflict.