In turn, the head and founder of the Wagner PMC, Evgueni Prigozhin, said that the Ukrainian army is placing the units it manages to withdraw from Artyomovsk (Bakhmut for the Ukrainians) in a second defence step, linking the towns of Konstantinovka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.

Prigozhin added that the territorial defence units are staying in Artyomovsk and, according to intelligence information, there is also the Georgian Legion, bringing the total number of enemy troops to nearly 12,000.

According to the head of Wagner, the Ukrainians have only one supply line left that passes through the Khromovo settlement, which must be taken to cut all secondary roads to the town of Ivanovskoye, which is where reinforcements for the units defending the city can arrive from.

He also said that the Ukrainians blew up the Severny Stavka dam and used artillery fire to breach the Berkhovsky reservoir, which led to the flooding of the Berkhovka area and the southern parts of Paraskoviyivka and Krasnaya Gora.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to slow down the advance of Russian troops, not allowing them to quickly cross and enter the central part of Artiomovsk, Prigozhin said.

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