DONETSK. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Sixty Ukrainian troops remain at the Donetsk airport, said Alexander Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
"Sixty Ukrainian troops and Right Sector fighters are encircled and besieged at the Donetsk airport," Zakharchenko told reporters on Wednesday.
He also said that DPR leaders are not planning an offensive in the Donbas region any time soon. "There is no task of freeing the occupied territories in time for the elections," he said.
A source in the DPR defense ministry told Interfax earlier on Wednesday that despite continued fighting near the airport overnight, the overall situation has not changed.
For his part, Ukraine's Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said on Wednesday that the announced truce in Donbas is being violated, with Ukrainian troops coming under fire up to 50 times a day. Heletey claimed that most frequently shelled areas were Debaltseve, Luhanskaya Stanitsa, Mariupol and its surroundings. "Most shelling is near the Donetsk airport," he added.