DONETSK, August 4. /TASS/. The initiative in the fighting in the Artyomovsk area belongs to the Russian armed forces, the Ukrainian units are forced to retreat from the previously occupied positions, Yan Gagin, a military analyst and an adviser to the acting head of the Donetsk People's Republic, said.

"The initiative near Artyomovsk is in our hands, we hit them (the Ukrainian forces - TASS) hard, they are retreating," Gagin said.

He specified that the Ukrainians have concentrated a serious grouping of forces on this section of the front. These units are systematically destroyed by Russian artillery. The situation remains tense.