On February 18, Izvestia correspondent Dmitry Astrakhan visited Paraskoviyivka near Artemovsk (Ukrainian name – Bakhmut) liberated by the Russian army and showed the destroyed equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
Ukrainian militants left the village without taking even the bodies of the dead. The footage shows the destroyed equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and abandoned firing positions, equipped in the middle of the settlement.
“Right in the middle of the street, right in the middle of the house, there is a barbed wire fence, and abandoned gunpowder caps are lying around. A whole checkpoint,” one of the Russian servicemen said.
Earlier in the day, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner PMC, said that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Paraskovievka, 9 km from Artemovsk. According to him, the village is completely under the control of units of the Wagner PMC.
The day before, Dmitry Astrakhan visited the entrance to Paraskovievka. He said that the militants removed road signs and signs, trying to confuse the attackers. However, it turned out to be useless. One of the employees of PMC “Wagner” said that the enemy did not even realize that he was already surrounded and the village was occupied. Then they began to set fire to the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, artillery began to work.
On February 14, the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, said that if the Russian army was able to take Paraskovievka, this would block the road to Chasov Yar, which is the last way to supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Artemovsk.
The special operation to protect the Donbass, the beginning of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
