The military man told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, that the losses among the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the control of Artiomovsk (known as Bakhmut by the Ukrainians) amount to five hundred daily, among dead and wounded.

And although Ukraine suffers from a shortage of troops due to the colossal losses, the replenishment of its ranks continues. ‘There is still a process of replenishment of the losses that the Ukrainian Army is suffering,’ Marochko stressed.

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

Currently, Russian units are fighting fierce battles for the city.

On March 22, the advisor to the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Yan Gaguin, announced that the city was practically completely blockaded by Russian forces and that all access routes to the city were controlled by Russian artillery.

Earlier, he reported that the Russian army controls about 70 percent of the territory of Artiomovsk.

Acting head of the DPR Denis Pushilin repeatedly pointed out that there was no evidence that Ukrainian troops were going to leave Atyomovsk.

In its turn, Kiev stressed that the defense of the city would be strengthened. In this connection, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky asserted that Ukrainian troops would not surrender the city and would fight for it as long as they could.

jrr/jav/mem/gfa.