The Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) are actively preparing to defend the town of Chasov Yar, west of Artemivsk (Ukrainian name Bakhmut) in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Andrey Marochko, a retired lieutenant colonel of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), spoke about this on February 20 on his Telegram channel.
According to him, in the area of this settlement there is an increase in fortifications and a contingent of Ukrainian troops.
“Active mining of approaches to enemy positions and the construction of other engineering barriers have been detected,” Marochko said.
In addition, according to him, for remote mining of a wooded area southeast of Chasov Yar, the Ukrainian military uses anti-personnel mines PFM-1 (Lepestok).
The day before, on January 19, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said that the Armed Forces (AF) of the Russian Federation had destroyed up to 250 Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk direction. Three Ukrainian armored fighting vehicles, six vehicles, D-20 and D-30 howitzers and a Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery were also eliminated.
The day before, on January 18, Denis Pushilin, acting head of the DPR, said that the Russian Armed Forces had strengthened their positions in the Artemovsk region. In particular, he drew attention to the fact that blocking the road to Chasov Yar would bring the liberation of Artemovsk closer.
Meanwhile, Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, on February 19, in an interview with The Sunday Times, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not plan to leave Artemivsk.
However, as President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky noted on the same day, the Ukrainian military will not fight for Artemivsk at any cost and until the last militant, since this is not a very large city.
On February 24 last year, the Russian Federation launched a special operation to protect Donbass. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian military.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
