GROZNY, January 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops taking part in the battle for Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name is Bakhmut) in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) are being squeezed by Russian forces from all sides, Apty Alaudinov, deputy commander of the 2nd army corps of the LPR People's Militia, told the Rossiya-1 television channel on Thursday.

"Our units, forces and means, first of all <...> the Wagner PMC and units of the Russian Defense Ministry operating in this area, indeed, bring very good results daily. Although we can see on the map that Kleshcheyevka (a village in the DPR in the south of Artyomovsk, taken by Russian forces - TASS) is in fact a very small piece of land, the fact is that strategically, even this piece of land is very important," he said.

Alaudinov added that the daily advance of "our forces and means leads to the situation in which we can probably already say that, in principle, Artyomovsk is close to operational blockade, the enemy is already pinned down from all sides."

"One more artery that is not under full control remains there, but it is also an artery that is already under operational control," he specified.

Reports on Saturday said that the Ukrainian armed forces had deployed 14 brigades to the Artyomovsk and Soledar directions, losing up to 70% of their personnel in fighting with Russian forces.