MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. The situation near Toretsk on the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is tense for the Ukrainian army, Ukraine’s General Staff said on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

In addition, it informed about "a strained situation" in the Pokrovsk area, which has been regularly mentioned in the General Staff’s reports as complex or tense since May. In late May, Ukraine’s General Staff admitted that Russian troops had achieved "certain successes" there.

It was reported earlier that the Ukrainian authorities were carrying out forced evacuation from Toretsk and at least 500 people out of 6,000 local residents had left the area. Russia’s Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported recently that Russian troops have been operating successfully against the Ukrainian army near Toretsk.

Toretsk is located north of Donetsk and southwest of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut by Ukraine).