Kiev Sends Foreign Fighters To Bakhmut, Soledar Areas - LPR Forces

 Kiev sent additional detachments of foreign fighters to the areas of the cities of Bakhmut, also known as Artemivsk, and Soledar to contain the advance of Russian forces, Andrei Marochko, an officer of the Luhansk People's Republic forces told Sputnik on Friday.

"In opposition to our advancing battle formations, the Ukrainian command additionally sent rapid reaction detachments consisting exclusively of foreigners to the area of Artemivsk and Soledar," Marochko said.

He said that the detachments were mobile groups equipped with NATO countries' weapons. They use Hummer armored vehicles and the coordination of groups with the Ukrainian command is carried out by translators.

"Each group has an interpreter, as the militants do not know Russian and communicate with each other mostly in English," Marochko added.

On Thursday, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said that Ukrainian forces were suffering serious losses in the Bakhmut and Soledar areas.

Bakhmut is located in the Kiev-controlled part of the Donetsk People's Republic, which was incorporated into Russia this fall after a referendum, and is an important transport hub for supplying the Ukrainian troops in Donbas amid the military operation launched by Russia in Ukraine in February.