An aerial footage shot by a drone shows a multi-storey control tower of the Sergey Prokofiev International Airport damaged by shelling during fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, in Donetsk, eastern UkraineREUTERS/Army.SOS/Handou 
An aerial footage shot by a drone shows an outline of an airplane in the snow at the Sergey Prokofiev International Airport damaged by shelling during fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, in Donetsk, eastern UkraineREUTERS/Army.SOS/Handou 
An aerial footage shot by a drone shows the shell craters at the Sergey Prokofiev International Airport damaged by shelling during fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, in Donetsk, eastern UkraineREUTERS/Army.SOS/Handou 
A report by Ukraine Today shows the fully destroyed air traffic control tower at Donetsk airport.Twitter
Ukrainian troops have reportedly taken back most of the territories of Donetsk airport from the Russia-backed rebels.
"We succeeded in almost completely cleansing the territory of the airport, which belongs to the territory of Ukrainian forces as marked by military separation lines," Ukrainian Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told Reuters.
The Ukrainian forces following the liberation of the airport also have released a series of dramatic footage shot through a drone camera showing the destruction of the airport.
The images show the destruction around the Donetsk airport including that of the air traffic control tower destroyed in the heavy rocket firing by the separatists.
In the last few days, the separatists intensified efforts to 'derail' all attempts to restart a peace talk by stepping up attacks that included intense shelling and even random firing on civilians. Thirteen civilians were killed in an attack on a passenger bus recently, said to be carried out by the Russia-backed Separatists.
With the conflict intensifying around Donbass region, the air traffic control tower of the Donetsk airport - seen as a sign of Ukraine's resistance - was destroyed in the heavy shelling by the pro-Russian forces.
Kremlin, in the mean time, has expressed its concern on what it calls an escalation by 'Ukrainian forces' an hindrance to the peace efforts.
The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had rejected a peace plan suggested by the Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The Russian president reportedly had sent in a letter, which included a plan for both sides to withdraw heavy artillery.
The development at the Donetsk airport came in the wake of a peace rally taken out by thousands of Ukrainians in memory of the civilians killed in a rocket attack on a bus.
