MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russian forces have edged Ukrainian troops out of the refractory plant in Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and begun to mop up the area of multistory buildings, Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the DPR head, said during a live broadcast on TV Channel One on Tuesday.
"They [Ukrainian troops] have left the refractory plant after quite serious resistance. The assault operations by our units have been quite effective and now the enemy has been pushed back to the private residential area slightly south of the refractory plant and slightly west of it to the private residential sector," the adviser said.
Battles are now raging outside the refractory plant and Russian forces are now primarily mopping up the area of multistory buildings, following which the town’s full liberation can be considered, he added.
The advance by Russian forces in Chasov Yar should be viewed together with their successes in Dzerzhinsk (called Toretsk by Ukraine), he added.
"The enemy understands well that after we liberate Chasov Yar and Toretsk - and they [Ukrainian troops] are still putting up some resistance at the coalmine - we will actually mop up quite a large urban agglomeration near Konstantinovka that will create quite an advantageous bridgehead for further successful operations," he explained.
A defense source told TASS on January 11 that a Ukrainian combat group had been trapped near the refractory plant in Chasov Yar where the enemy had been deploying a large amount of personnel for a long time.