For his part, the head of the Wagner armed group, Evgueni Prigozhin, said that the Ukrainian army places the units it can withdraw from Artiomovsk (Baymut for the Ukrainians) in a second tier of defense connecting the cities of Konstantinovska, Kramatorsk and Slaviansk.
Prigozhin added that the territorial defense units remained in Artiomovsk, and according to intelligence information, the Georgian legion was also present, so the total number of enemy troops is 12 thousand.
According to him, the Ukrainians have only one supply line left, passing through the settlement of Jromovo, which must be taken to cut all side roads to the town of Ivanovskoye, where reinforcements for the groups defending the town can arrive.
He also claimed that the Ukrainians blew up the Severny Stavka dam and broke through the Berkhovsky reservoir with artillery fire, which led to the flooding of the Berkhovka area and the southern parts of Paraskoviyivka and Krasnaya Gora.
According to the fighter, in this way 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.
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