Rebels Assault Donetsk Airport as PM Accuses Putin Of Seeking to 'Eliminate' Country

The Ukrainian military said Saturday its forces had repelled an insurgent attack on the airport in the eastern separatist stronghold of Donetsk, despite an eight-day ceasefire.

"Many rebels backed by six tanks launched an assault against the airport on Friday which was heroically repelled by the soldiers," the press service for the military operation in eastern Ukraine said.

While pro-Russian separatists have held the city of Donetsk itself for months Ukrainian forces have dug in at the airport since a major battle there in May.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of wanting to wipe out Ukraine as an independent country despite a truce deal.

"His aim is not just to take Donetsk and Lugansk," Yatsenyuk said at a conference in Kiev, referring to the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine where fighting has been raging for five months.

"His goal is to take the entire Ukraine... he wants to eliminate Ukraine as an independent country," Yatsenyuk said in English.

He described the truce signed on September 5 in Minsk between Kiev, pro-Russian rebels, Moscow and the European security body the OSCE as just a "first step" to "stop a massacre" in eastern Ukraine.

He said that having a bilateral accord with Russia was "not the best" idea and called on the United States and the European Union to play a direct role in peace talks, and to guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty and independence.

"They (the Russians) will outplay us," he said. "Putin wants to get another frozen conflict and get his hands on our belly fat."

He said the conflict had made it impossible for the Kiev authorities to embark on real change, to tackle political reforms, the economic crisis and endemic corruption.

He denied however that the unrest in the east, which erupted after pro-Russian separatists launched an uprising against Kiev's rule, was a "civil conflict".

"The only person who is destabilizing the situation is Putin," he said. "We are in a state of war and the key aggressor is the Russian Federation."