Separatist forces now claim to have taken complete control of Sergey Prokofiev International Airport after a series of battles with pro-government forces over the fiercely contested complex.

The airport has been closed for months, but it has symbolic value for both sides and has become the main flashpoint in the fighting even as prospects for a new round of peace talks have dimmed.

Separatist organisation Donetsk People’s Republic made an online statement yesterday in which they claimed that 'today, we can speak about control over the territory of Donetsk airport and its surroundings', the New York Times reported.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Yuri Biryukov, said separatists had launched a full-scale attack on the airport to try to dislodge government forces. 

Meanwhile, representatives from Ukraine and Russia, separatist leaders and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had been tentatively due to meet in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, yesterday to try to get a peace effort and ceasefire back on track.

But the meeting of the so-called 'contact group' did not get off the ground, despite calls from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One rebel official, Denis Pushilin, left Minsk saying he did not know when a further attempt to hold talks would be scheduled.

In a report highlighting the collapse of health care in Ukraine's eastern regions, the Geneva-based World Health Organization has put the death toll from the nine-month conflict at more than 4,800.

Ukraine, Russia and separatist leaders agreed in Minsk last September on a 12-point peace blueprint for scaling down the conflict, including through a ceasefire.

But the accord was flouted from the start, with each side blaming the other. Kiev says 200 soldiers have been killed since the truce theoretically came into force in early September.

Kiev accuses Russia of failing to comply with the agreement to withdraw Russian fighters and military equipment from the east. Despite what the West and Kiev say is incontrovertible evidence, Moscow denies its troops are involved in the conflict.

Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday to rotate Ukrainian front-line troops and resume partial conscription after a security official said Russian forces had sharply increased military activity in the east.

Russia reacted to this on Friday saying the move could undermine peace efforts. 'Any action related to military preparations does not help the process,' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

'We will hope that all this... does not lead to a renewed military confrontation.'

(dailymail.co.uk)