There is a battalion commander amongst 16 Ukrainian servicemen taken prisoner at the Donetsk airport, acting spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff Vladyslav Selezniov said.

"True, this information has been confirmed," Selezniov told Interfax-Ukraine. He did not disclose the name and rank of the battalion commander.

According to the Donetsk portal 62.ua, militants captured a battalion commander of the 95th Zhytomyr separate airmobile brigade on January 20. The commander and eight paratroopers tried to rescue the soldiers trapped in the new terminal of Donetsk airport besieged by militants.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Yuriy Biriukov wrote on Facebook earlier that the commander of a battalion engaged in the airport battle was taken prisoner while trying to extract soldiers from the terminal. "Extraction is not a mission for the battalion commander yet he did so because his men were [trapped] there. He is now in captivity," he said.

Ukraine's Azov special regiment said late on Wednesday night that the army servicemen had to retreat from their positions at the Donetsk airport. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday morning that fighting for the airport continued and Ukrainian servicemen were controlling a part of airport buildings and premises. Six Ukrainian servicemen were killed, 16 were injured and captured and 20 left the devastated terminals over the past day.