LUGANSK, March 27. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces sustained roughly 1,500 losses in battles with Russian troops near Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) over the past week, Andrey Marochko, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Lugansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) People’s Militia, told TASS on Monday.

"In the past week, Ukrainian militants suffered some 1,500 irretrievable losses and about 3,000 sanitary losses in the area of Artyomovsk. Of those wounded, roughly 20% sustained serious injuries and they will later be discharged from the army," he said, referring to Russian reconnaissance data.

Artyomovsk is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Fierce battles are going on for the city. On Wednesday, military-political expert Yan Gagin, an adviser to the acting head of the DPR, said that the city had been almost completely sealed off by the Russian army, with its artillery keeping all routes of approach to the city under control. Earlier, he said that the Russian forces controlled about 70% of Artyomovsk.