MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. The armed forces of Ukraine will boost their defenses of Artyomovsk, a city in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) known in Ukraine as Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Wednesday.

"I held the [general] staff meeting [to hear] reports by the commander-in-chief, intelligence and field commanders," Zelensky said in a video address, published by his office. "The focus [was on] Khortitsa and Bakhmut operational-strategic groups of forces. The entire staff has a clear position that this axis needs to be reinforced."

Besides, the country’s top brass traditionally discussed supplies of weapons and ammunition, the president added.

Artyomovsk is located on the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic and is a major transportation hub for the Ukrainian army’s supplies in Donbass. Fierce fighting for the city is underway. Wagner private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on March 11 that Russian troops were 1.2 km away from the administrative center of Artyomovsk.

According to the latest information, Russian troops have cut off or placed all the paved roads to the city under their gunfire control and the muddy season that has begun seriously impedes the delivery of ammunition and reserves to the entrenched Ukrainian battlegroup.