In June 1941, Artemov belonged to the 127 IAP of the 11 SmAD.

On 22 June 1941 he claimed two victories, both of them while flying Polikarpov I-153.

The 127 IAP made claims for 20 enemy planes on 180 sorties on the first day of the German invasion. In fact, German losses had been quite low that day, amounting to perhaps a tenth of the total Soviet claims, the general chaos and heat of combat leading to some disproportionate overclaiming.

On 8 July 1941 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Artemov ended the war with 2 victories claimed while flying biplanes.

He continued to serve after the war and retired as a Starshiy Politruk to live in L'vov.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	22/06/41	1	Enemy aircraft	Destroyed	I-153		Grodno	127 IAP
2	22/06/41	1	Enemy aircraft	Destroyed	I-153		Grodno	127 IAP

Biplane victories: 2 destroyed.
TOTAL: 2 destroyed.
Note: Some sources credits Artemov with four victories on 22 June 1941.

Sources:
Aerohobby No.1'94, kindly via Alexey Andreev
Stalin's Eagles - Hans D. Seidl, 1998 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-7643-0476-3
Additional information kindly provided by Yuri Shakhov.