MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The founder of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Thursday that the settlement of Nikolayevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic has been taken under control by Russian forces.
"In the course of the fighting, units of the Wagner PMC took control of the Nikolayevka settlement," Prigozhin’s press service quoted him as saying on its Telegram channel. It also uploaded a short video showing soldiers in front of a house in the settlement.
Fierce fighting continues in the area of Artyomovsk. Earlier, the DPR’s acting head Denis Pushilin reported that Russian forces are acting systematically to cut off supply routes for the Ukrainian group of troops in the area and pincer it. He also reported that fighting was already underway on the outskirts of the city, directly in the neighborhoods recently held by Ukrainian units.