MOSCOW, Jan 15 Artemovsk, according to the Washington Post.
According to her, Ukraine is facing difficult decisions about how much forces to send to the city, as it will be forced to launch a new counteroffensive in the coming months.
«We lost a lot of friends defending the city, so we don't want to surrender it now. But perhaps a temporary withdrawal of troops will save some of our people,» the unnamed Ukrainian military quoted the publication as saying. He added that his unit suffered heavy losses in Artemovsk.
The commander of the reconnaissance battalion, Yuri Skala, for his part, expressed confidence that the military leadership would take the necessary actions if a «tactical maneuver» was required.
«I will support the commander-in-chief's decision on tactical maneuver and the creation of a new line of defense if it becomes clear that the losses are too great,» he told the newspaper.
But even an organized retreat from Artemovsk will be politically fraught, concludes WP.
Artemivsk is located in the Kyiv-controlled part of the DPR north of Gorlovka. This is an important transport hub for supplying the Ukrainian group in the Donbass, a network of roads and railways passes through it.
In the evening of January 12, the operation of Russian troops to liberate Soledar, which is located in the center of the Artemovsk-Seversk defense line, was completed. This is important in terms of the development of offensive actions — it allows you to cut off the supply of Ukrainian troops in the area and then take them into the cauldron.