Fighting intensifies at Ukraine airport, two soldiers killed

Speaker of parliament Oleksander Turchynov attends a session of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev February 22, 2014. REUTERS/Alex Kuzmin

KIEV (Reuters) - Fighting intensified around the international airport in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday as pro-Russian separatists stepped up efforts to dislodge government forces and Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers had been killed.

The complex, a battered wreck with its runways cratered by shell explosions, has not functioned as an airport since hostilities erupted last April but it remains an important symbol for both sides.