Russian Forces Advance Toward Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, Heavy Artillery Deployed Against Ukrainian Defenses

LUGANSK, April 22. /TASS/. Russian troops are using heavy artillery to destroy the Ukrainian army’s first defensive line in Slavyansk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, military expert Vitaly Kiselyov told TASS. Chief of Russia’s General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov said on April 21 that the Russian army’s forward units had come within a distance of 12 km from the eastern outskirts of Slavyansk and 7 km from Kramatorsk. Russian troops are tightening the ring of encirclement around Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, the military expert said. "Assault teams have reached distant approaches to Slavyansk and heavy artillery is methodically destroying the first line of fortifications," he said. After the liberation of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic will be under full control of the Russian army, the military expert said.