Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia on Saturday of trying to "eliminate" his county, as government troops thwarted an attack by pro-Russian separatists on an airport in Donetsk city.
Russia's "goal is to take the entire Ukraine" and "restore the Soviet Union," Yatsenyuk said of the five-month conflict that has killed over 3,000 people, according to Al Jazeera.
"Let me put it bluntly, we are still in the state of war, and the key aggressor is the Russian Federation. And until we get the peace it would be really difficult to have real changes," the prime minister said at a conference attended by European and Ukrainian lawmakers.
Gun and rocket fire was heard all Saturday morning at the Donetsk airport, which is located in one of eastern Ukraine's rebel-held cities. But government forces have been able to keep control of the airport despite artillery fire from insurgents.
The airport is "a very important strategic position which the rebels here would very much like to take control of," Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker said from Donetsk.
The fighting has resumed despite a ceasefire deal between Ukrainian forces and separatists that took effect Sept. 5.
But instead of the casefire violation, the focus seems to be on a second Russian convoy filled with what it says is aid that crossed into Ukraine.
European security watchdog group OSCE told the BBC that 220 Russian trucks crossed the border overnight. Most of the trucks entered without being inspected by either Ukrainian or humanitarian officials.
Russia sent another aid convoy to Ukraine in August. Even though Ukraine stalled it at the border, it still made its way into the country without permission.
Ukraine and Western officials expressed fears that Russia was using the convoys as a front to send weapons to the insurgents. Russia maintains the trucks are filled with needed supplies for displaced civilians and that it is not contributing to the uprising.
