MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. The Kiev government’s forces are sustaining heavy losses in Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name Bakhmut), because the country’s top brass did not prepare the city for defense, according to a Ukrainian general.
"We are paying a terrible price for this city. The thing is that certain [commanding officers] have made mistakes and did not prepare the city for proper defense," said the former deputy commander of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, ex-deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, General Sergey Krivonos.
"Not just approaches to Bakhmut should have been prepared, the city itself should have been readied for defense. This was not done properly, and now these issues are resulting in quite heavy losses," he said in an interview to Channel Five.
In his opinion, Ukrainian troops should have left Artyomovsk back in February.
He also noted that the Kiev government was experiencing huge problems in the training of mobilized soldiers.
Artyomovsk is located on the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic and is a major transportation hub for the Ukrainian army’s supplies in Donbass. Fierce fighting for the city is underway. As adviser to the acting DPR head Yan Gagin told TASS on April 18, Russian forces control already almost 90% of Artyomovsk. Acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on April 24 that . Russian forces had advanced in the northwestern and western parts of Artyomovsk, but the situation remains tense there.