By Hromadkse TV
10.24.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

In Donetsk, the insurgents are currently using tanks to block the road leading north of Kyivsky District where the [Donetsk] airport is located, as reported by the local website, 62.ua, based on eyewitness reports.

Donetsk residents wrote in the social networks:
Passage is blocked from Shakhtarska Square to Kyivsky Avenue. A [high] concentration of people in camouflage carrying objects that look like weapons.
Road being blocked on “Vilnus,” anyone know why?
They said they were encircling the airport, they put the tanks [on the road] and blocked the road.

According to the mayor’s office, the night [of October 23rd, 2014] in Donetsk was restless. Starting at 1 am, fire from large-caliber weapons was heard in many [city] districts. However, no residential houses were reported destroyed by ammunition.

11:45 am update:
Eyewitnesses report that a convoy of tanks and covered trucks with people in camouflage drove up the blocked avenue. Mortars have been set up on a roof at 48 Kyivsky Ave.

11:52 am update:
Employees in offices located at Kyivsky Ave received instructions to close up and leave [the building] immediately.

11:56 am update:
Shootouts continue near the Donetsk airport. It appears that the separatists are preparing for something. Meanwhile, Ukrainian military forces are ready to repel the attack, according to a source of Hromadske TV’s in the vicinity of the airport.

3:09 pm update:
It’s quiet near the airport. We hear gunshots and explosions, but somewhere in the distance, near “Spartak” (…). A large area is under separatist control, we simply do not have enough forces to control a larger territory. –[Ukrainian] serviceman, call sign Rosomakha [Wolverine], stationed at the airport, in a phone call to Hromadske TV.

According to the serviceman, Ukrainian soldiers are aware of insurgent activity at the approaches to the airport and are ready to repel their attack.

Source: Hromadske TV 

Editor’s Note: As of 24 hours following the above reports, the above preparations have not resulted in any extraordinary activity of the insurgents. Voices of Ukraine continues monitoring and relaying reports from the area.