Retired LPR Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Marochko said this on the air of Russia 24.
“Everyone understands perfectly well that the fate of Artemovsk is a foregone conclusion,” RIA Novosti quotes him.
No matter how the Armed Forces of Ukraine are fighting now, they need reserve positions to move away from the city, he noted.
“These spare positions were chosen in the village of Chasov Yar, it is located west of Artemovsk,” he continued.
Marochko recalled that there are warehouses, medical institutions in Chasovy Yar, and the infrastructure is well equipped, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine need human resources in Bakhmut.
“They now have a dilemma: either still leave Artemovsk, or throw more and more forces into this settlement, but thereby bleeding Chasov Yar,” said the former military man.
Earlier, adviser to the acting head of the DPR, Yan Gagin, said that control over the Chasov Yar-Artyomovsk highway would be established in the near future.