MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops will be fighting for Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name - Bakhmut) to the bitter end, they created four groups of forces to block Russian troops, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said.

"The Ukrainian armed forces created several groups: one group in Slavyansk - the 67th brigade, the second one in Seversk - the 81st and 66th brigades, one group of forces in Chasov Yar and one more in Konstantinovka," Prigozhin’s press service quoted him on its Telegram channel.

"The Ukrainian armed forces will be clashing for Artyomovsk to the last, and this is obvious, and we have to do our job all the way through as well," Prigozhin stressed.

According to the founder of the private military company, Russian forces are blocking Artyomovsk. In his opinion, the Ukrainian military will need to blockade the volunteer units to unblock the city, but this will not happen if Russian forces are covered from the flanks.

On March 1, Prigozhin reported that tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops were offering fierce resistance in Artyomovsk.

Artyomovsk is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic and is an important transport hub for supplying the Ukrainian troops in Donbass. Fierce fighting for the city is underway. On February 16, DPR’s acting leader Denis Pushilin said that Russian forces had taken all the major heights near Artyomovsk.