According to Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigojine, the Russian army is just over a kilometer from the center of Bakhmout, a city that Moscow troops have been trying to take since the summer.
The Russians claim to be near the center of Bakhmout, a town in eastern Ukraine which they have been trying to take since the summer at the cost of heavy losses and where the Ukrainians are seeking to “win time” to prepare for a counter-offensive which, according to them, should not be long in coming. Franceinfo summarizes the main events of the day.
Wagner boss claims Russians are advancing towards central Bakhmout
In Bakhmout, the current epicenter of the conflict, Evguéni Prigojine, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner, claimed a new progression of his men who are fighting there on the front line. “It is the building of the municipal administration, the administrative center of the city”he said on Saturday, pointing from the roof of a building to another building, as an illustration of this progress. “It’s a kilometer two hundred”, “this is the area, there are fights going on”, he added in a video released by the press service of his company Concord. These remarks are unverifiable from an independent source in the immediate future.
The Russians have been trying for several weeks to encircle this city of some 70,000 inhabitants before the conflict and have succeeded in cutting off several important roads for the supply of Ukrainian soldiers. While observers doubt the strategic importance of Bakhmout in itself, this battle – the longest since the start of the Russian offensive more than a year ago – has acquired symbolic value, both for Kiev and for Moscow, which would like to obtain a victory there after several humiliating setbacks.
The counter-offensive “is not far away”, assures the Ukrainian staff
“The real heroes are the defenders who hold the Eastern Front on their shoulders”greeted the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces Oleksandre Syrsky, in a press release. “We have to gain time to accumulate reserves and launch a counter-offensive, which is not far away”he said again, quoted by the press service of the army.
Three killed in Russian strike in Kherson
At least three people were killed and two others injured in a Russian strike in Kherson, southern Ukraine, authorities said on Saturday, two days after deadly artillery fire. This new strike comes two days after Russian artillery shell fire killed three people in the same city of Kherson, according to the Ukrainian presidency. Kherson, the main city in the eponymous region of southern Ukraine, was liberated by the kyiv army last November after several months of Russian occupation. Since then, Russian fire has been regular on the region, which Moscow partially controls.