According to the recording, Zelenski said that he had meet at the Defense Ministry’s headquarters, where intelligence and military chiefs’ reports were presented and focused on the need to maintain the operational leadership of troops in Khortitsa-Artiomovsk.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeri Zaluzhny noted that the defense of Artiomovsk was of crucial strategic importance for the troops to hold the front line.

Artiomovsk is located in the part of the Donetsk People’s Republic controlled by Ukraine and it is an important transport hub for supplying Ukrainian troops in the Donbas.

There has been heavy fighting for this town since the summer of 2022. On March 11, the head of the Wagner military company, Evgueni Prigozhin, reported that Russian forces were 1.2 kilometers from the administrative center of Artiomovsk.

jg/abo/mem/gfa