LUGANSK, October 26. /TASS/. Polish mercenaries stationed in the Liman area refused to go into battle after a number of failed attacks and later killed a group of Ukrainian nationalists that had been sent to re-establish order, the Lugansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) interior minister's advisor Vitaly Kiselyov said on Wednesday.

"There was an incident near Liman, where Polish mercenaries refused to tempt fate by trying to advance after several failed attacks," he wrote on Telegram.

According to Kiselyov, a group of Ukrainian nationalists, who were sent to sort the situation out, "failed to build a conversation" and its members were killed. "A massacre between foreigners and Nazis is looming," the official added.

LPR People’s Militia officer Andrey Marochko earlier told TASS that allied forces were steadily advancing, driving the enemy to the northwestern part of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) city of Artyomovsk. On October 4, acting DPR head Denis Pushilin said that Ukrainian troops had retreated from several areas near Artyomovsk, while Russian forces had strengthened their positions. He specified that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had withdrawn reserves from the Artyomovsk area to attack Krasny Liman.