GROZNY, March 14. /TASS/. The commander of the Akhmat commando unit, deputy commander of the 2nd Army Corps of the LPR People's Militia, Apty Alaudinov, estimates that Kiev may have commissioned 7,000 to 10,000 troops in an attempt to retain positions in Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name - Bakhmut).

"The mobilized were massively moved there. Naturally, hundreds of them keep dying. Of course, I’m not ready to say how many Ukrainian troops there are. According to my own estimates, 7,000 to 10,000 men were commissioned in an attempt to hold the city. I'm not ready to say how many Ukrainian troops have been eliminated at the moment, but I know that they sustain heavy losses every day," Alaudinov said on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Tuesday.

Artyomovsk, he said, is currently completely blocked by Russian forces.

"In fact, there has been only one area left through which they (the Ukrainian army - TASS) could bring forces in and out. At the moment, this area is completely under the control of our forces. We are aware that the enemy plans to attack in order to unblock Artyomovsk itself. Three groups were concentrated for this purpose, but at the moment they are not very successful," Alaudinov said.