Donetsk, Jun 5 — DAN. Russian authorities are considering the possibility to restore the Donetsk airport; the issue was discussed in the course of President Vladimir Putin’s meeting on Monday with Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev and Russian Railways Director Oleg Belozerov.
“Our general development covers five airports: these are Mariupol, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, ” the Kremlin press service quoted Savelyev as saying. “We’ll start with Mariupol when we have that opportunity. We are currently preparing design specifications and estimates.”
“If the situation permits, we’ll be able to use the airport in 2024-2025. We’ll phase in others later on because they sustained damage, ” he said.
Donetsk’s Sergey Prokofiev airport stopped operation on May 26, 2014 by the decision of Ukraine’s State Aviation Administration. On that day, Ukrainian forces delivered the first airstrikes at the facility. Several dozen people including militiamen, airport personnel and civilians were killed in fighting. The next day, Ukraine’s National Guard took airport terminals under control. Several months of clashes left the airport completely ruined. It was liberated from Ukrainian troops on January 16, 2015.*jk