DONETSK, January 12. /TASS/. The Russian Armed Forces are "exerting heavy pressure" on the enemy near Stepnogorsk, Igor Kimakovsky, an adviser to the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on the Soloviev Live TV channel.

"In the Zaporozhye direction, the Dnepr and Vostok Battlegroups are exerting quite heavy pressure on the enemy in the Stepnogorsk area, as well as in the area of the Gaichur River, Ternovatoye and Gulyaipole toward Zheleznodorozhny, that is they are already establishing a bridgehead west of the Gaichur River," Kimakovsky said.

He added that counter-attacks are ongoing in the Konstantinovka and Krasnoarmeysk directions in the DPR.

Kimakovsky reported earlier that, amid the Russian military advance in the Zaporozhye sector, the Ukrainian armed forces were attempting to gather reinforcements near Zheleznodorozhnoye.

On December 27, it was announced that Russian troops liberated the Stepnogorsk locality in the Zaporozhye Region. According to Battlegroup Dnepr Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, the advance units of Battlegroup Dnepr were 15 kilometers from the southern outskirts of Zaporozhye at the end of December.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command post of the Russian armed forces in the morning of December 27 and held a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and the commanders of the battle groups. He heard a report on the liberation of Gulyaipole in the Zaporozhye Region and Dimitrov in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). Putin said that the establishment of a buffer zone on the Russian-Ukrainian border is proceeding well, and that Russian Armed Forces are advancing in Donbass and the Zaporozhye Region along the entire line of engagement.