Ukrainian military. File photoMOSCOW, Oct 16Ukraine's armed forces are fighting «very heavy fighting» near Soledar and Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel.
"Key hotspots in Donbass — Soledar and Bakhmut, very heavy fighting continues there,” he noted in an evening video message.
The day before, the President of Ukraine claimed that in the vicinity of Artemivsk (Bakhmut) in the Donbass, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine found themselves in a difficult situation, which has not changed for several days. On October 14, Andrey Marochko, an officer of the People's Militia of the LPR, said that fighting was taking place on the outskirts of Artemovsk, Ukrainian troops were withdrawing to the western and northwestern parts of the city. Viktor Garbar, a spokesman for the administration of Pervomaisk, told reporters that the Russian military was evacuating residents of the areas under their control of Artemovsk, Soledar, and a number of liberated villages in that region. . They are located about six kilometers from Artemivsk.
A captured UAF fighter told how Kyiv disoriented groups on the front line