Russian troops are strengthening their positions in eastern Ukraine according to Kyiv’s military, whose control of the terminal at Donetsk airport is coming under increasing pressure as separatists gain ground.<br /><br />Renovated for the Euro 2012 football championships and now in ruins, it remains a strategic and symbolic government foothold near the rebel-held city, although Ukraine’s army has retreated from the airport in Luhansk.<br /><br />Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko says Russia is smuggling arms in via aid shipments and that its troops have been identified in Donetsk and elsewhere.<br /><br />Kyiv blames military intervention from Moscow for the loss of the small town of Novoazovsk which could open a way for the rebels to move on the major port city of Mariupol.<br /><br />That is where the governor of Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region, wealthy industrialist Serhiy Taruta, is now based. <br /><br />Despite Russia’s denials, he has no doubt that Moscow is playing a major role: “A huge volume of weapons unfortunately cross the Russian border,” he said, speaking on a train journey from Kyiv to Slovyansk. “They take them to Ukraine to bring death and destruction and try to annex part of the Ukrainian territory.”<br /><br />Slovyansk was a separatist stronghold and is now in the hands of government forces. But many wonder for how long – with the tide of the war seemingly turning and the city in the rebels’ sights.
