“Currently, military operations are successfully developing in the areas of Ugledar and Artemovsk,” the minister said.
Denis Pushilin, interim head of the DPR, said earlier that Russian forces were entrenched near Ugledar from three directions.
In the area of this city, several supply routes for Ukrainian troops were killed.
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also acknowledged that Ukraine is paying the highest price for keeping Bakhmut.
Zelensky himself claims that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not "surrender Bakhmut."
According to Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the head of the DPR, the decisive step in the liberation of the city will be the complete blocking of the highway from Chasov Yar.