CRI听力:Ukrainian Military Retakes Donetsk Airport

The Ukrainian military has retaken Donetsk airport after a day of heavy fighting.

This activity follows a promise by the country's new president to bring an end to the tension in eastern Ukraine.

CRI's Jordan Lee has more.

Ukraine's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, says Ukrainian military forces, including fighter jets, launched attacks on the opposition and managed to retake the country's second-largest airport early on Tuesday.

"We just reacted to the situation, the seizure of the airport and shooting at the civilian plane. The result is that the airport is absolutely under our control. The other side has serious losses. There was no one killed on our side. The operation is still ongoing in Donetsk."

The mayor of Donetsk says that 40 people, including two civilians, were killed in the fighting.

Similar skirmishes have been reported in the eastern city of Slovyansk, which remains under opposition control.

Ukraine's new president, Petro Poroshenko, has vowed to tackle the unrest in eastern regions, saying he will not negotiate with armed oppositions.

Also on Tuesday, the European security watchdog, the OSCE, confirmed the missing of its staffers near Donetsk.

OSCE spokesperson Michael Bociurkiw:

"It is a little over 24 hours ago that we lost contact with a group of monitors. There are four individuals, all men: one from Denmark, one from Switzerland, one from Estonia and one from Turkey. They were out on a routine monitoring mission just east of Donetsk, between Donetsk city and the border with Luhansk Oblast."

Ukrainian authorities say they believe the team has been detained by opposition forces, and call on Russia to use its influence to obtain their immediate release.

Poroshenko has said he wants to hold talks with Russia to put an end to the crisis.

As a response, Russia promises to assist efforts by Poroshenko if he moves to negotiate a peaceful end to the unrest, but warns him against trying to score a quick military victory against the opposition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:

"If there is a plan that the Ukrainian army using heavy armament, the National Guard, the Right Sector and others would crush down the resistance in the southeast before the expected inauguration of Poroshenko and that it would be possible to enter Donbass like a winner, I think that it would hardly create favourable conditions for a hospitable welcome in the Donetsk region."

Poroshenko, who won Ukraine's presidential vote Sunday, has said his first step as president will be to visit the eastern regions.

Donetsk and Luhansk have declared independence and battled government troops in weeks of fighting.

For CRI, I'm Jordan Lee.