MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Russian forces are advancing in the area of Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name Bakhmut). Also, there have been certain successes in the area of Avdeyevka, Igor Kimakovsky, an adviser to the acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said on Thursday.
"We have made clear progress. Everyone has already heard the news Soledar is practically ours. Our troops are performing more efficiently. We have made certain progress near Avdeyevka and near Artyomovsk," Kimakovsky said on the TV channel Solovyov Live.
He stressed that Soledar was a city with a vast network of underground mines and tunnels.
"It's good that we now have maps of almost all tunnels and shafts in this area. We are unlikely to encounter any obstacles like those in Azovstal (a large plant in the industrial zone of Mariupol, where the last Ukrainian forces in the city were trapped for a long time - TASS)," Kimakovsky explained.
Fierce hostilities are in progress near Artyomovsk. Earlier, the acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that Russian forces were systematically cutting the supply lines of the Ukrainian group in the area, using a pincer movement. Once this city is under control, he said, it will be possible to proceed with liberating the northern part of the republic. The DPR and LPR have repeatedly said the reinforcements the Ukrainian command was deploying near Artyomovsk were sustaining heavy losses.