MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. Preliminary mine clearance operations have begun in the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Acting Head Denis Pushilin said on Monday.

"Preliminary mine clearance operations are underway in the city," he told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"Carrying out careful, thoroughgoing mine clearance is crucial for us. Given the scale of combat operations that took place there, it is very hard, painstaking work," Pushilin stressed. The acting DPR head added that checking all those places where civilians may still remain in the battle-ravaged city was currently a top priority.

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on May 21 that the operation to liberate Artyomovsk had been completed as a result of an offensive carried out by assault units from the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), backed up by artillery units and aircraft from Battlegroup South. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Wagner fighters and Russian service members on the liberation of the Donbass city. The Kremlin press service said that all those who distinguished themselves in the fight for Artyomovsk would be nominated for state decorations and awards.

Artyomovsk, located in the northern part of the DPR, had served as a key logistics hub for supplying the Ukrainian military in the Donbass and was a major Ukrainian outpost. The battle for the city, which began on August 1, 2022, has proven to be one of the biggest battles during the liberation of the Donbass since 2014. Before the fighting began, the city had a population of 72,000 inhabitants.