[26] Sporadic skirmishes between DPR and Ukrainian forces continued at Donetsk International Airport following the signing of the Minsk Protocol on 5 September 2014.

[citation needed] The placement of main buildings on the airport made its defense by Ukrainian forces more difficult from the start, because the airport structures are located on the south section, while the runway which served to resupply Ukrainian forces was in the open, thus allowing DPR fighters to easily target them.

[citation needed] DPR forces began a "concerted effort" to retake Donetsk International Airport in the last days of September.

[29] The worst incident since the start of ceasefire took place on 28 September, when nine Ukrainian soldiers were killed and twenty-seven wounded in a clash with DPR forces.

[1] Around this time, DPR forces began to establish positions in tower blocks overlooking the airport, including a medical station, staging area, and an artillery observation post.

[29] At 06:15 local time on the following day, DPR forces began to barrage the airport with Grad rocket fire.

According to DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko, the insurgent barrage was launched in response to government mortar fire that had been falling on Donetsk city proper.

Amidst the continuing fire, a school and bus stop in the Kyivskiy district of Donetsk city, which neighbours the airport, were struck by shells on 1 October.

[32] Concurrently, DPR forces supported by tanks began to advance into the airport, and seized several hangars, a fuel storage area, and outbuildings.

DPR forces continued to move forward, and captured the control centre, police station, and hotel, but could not advance further.

The building had become littered with booby traps and debris, with Ukrainian and DPR forces fighting in a "claustrophobic game of cat and mouse".

The report said that in the new terminal building, "every pane of glass has shattered; every door, wall and ceiling has been pierced with bullets and shrapnel".

[46] According to a Ukrainian military spokesman, this agreement was made only to allow DPR forces to recover their dead and wounded from the airport grounds.

Lt. General Lentsov said that, at the meeting, he and his Ukrainian counterpart discussed the creation of a military joint control centre to co-ordinate implementation of the Minsk Protocol in the Donetsk area.

According to Right Sector volunteer paramilitaries, the ruins of Pisky were used to guard the "Road of Life", the only supply line into Donetsk airport that was controlled by government forces.

[52][53] In addition, DPR forces assisted with the rotations under OSCE observation, and helped carry Ukrainian personnel and supplies.

[64] After four days of heavy shelling of the airport, DPR forces pushed back Ukrainian troops on 14 January, and captured one-third of the new terminal building.

[68] DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko stated that the capture of the airport was the first step toward regaining territory lost to Ukrainian forces during the summer of 2014.

The operation caused fighting to move toward Donetsk proper, resulting in heavy shelling of residential areas of the city that border the airport.

[71] DPR authorities said that they halted government forces at Putylivskiy bridge, which connects the airport and the city proper.

OSCE monitors reported that shelling had caused heavy damage in the Donetsk residential districts of Kyivsky, Kirovsky, Petrovsky, and Voroshilovsky.

[21] During the day, insurgents blew up part of the ceiling of the first floor of the new terminal building, causing it to collapse onto holed up Ukrainian soldiers.

[25] As Ukrainian and DPR forces fought away from the airport, a group of insurgents stormed the ground and second floors of the new terminal building.

A spokesman for the DPR Defence Ministry said that sixteen Ukrainian soldiers who had been buried under rubble in the main terminal building for days had been taken captive, and given medical care.

[84] Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said on 21 January that Russia had deployed more than 9,000 soldiers and 500 tanks, artillery units, and armoured personnel carriers in Donbas.

[86] Following the battle, separatist fighters paraded captured Ukrainian soldiers from the airport at the scene of a bus shelling in Donetsk city proper.

[91][92] The term was taken from intercepted radio communications of DPR forces referring to Ukrainians as "some kind of cyborgs sitting in there," published on YouTube.

It refers to the way that the airport defenders were able to fend off constant attacks by DPR forces in close quarters with little sleep or support, just as science-fiction cyborgs are "indestructible half-men, half-machines", or "superhuman".

Tymchuk stated the airport had been rendered unusable by the fighting, and that fears of Russia using it to support the Donetsk People's Republic were overblown.

It is likely that, because the DPR committed a large force to assaulting the airport, this provided an opening for the Azov Battalion to push the insurgents away from Mariupol.