The city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, is “virtually surrounded” by Russian forces, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner said on Friday.
“Wagner’s units have practically surrounded Bakhmout, there is only one road left” to get out, Yevgeny Prigojine said in a video posted on Telegram by his press service.
Mr Prigozhin, whose men are on the front line in this battle, called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to order Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the city, now largely destroyed and where both sides have suffered heavy losses.
“If before we faced a professional Ukrainian army, which fought against us, today we see more and more old people and children. They fight, but their life in Bakhmout is short, a day or two,” said Mr. Prigojine.
“Give them a chance to leave the city, it’s practically surrounded,” he added.
The video then shows three people, an elderly man and two young people, asking on camera Mr Zelensky to allow them to leave.
Despite a strategic importance disputed by experts, Bakhmout has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the industrial region of Donbass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who went there in December, had sworn to defend this fortress city “as long as possible”.
The Ukrainian military command had admitted on Tuesday an “extremely tense” situation there in the face of Russian attacks.
Russian forces have advanced in recent weeks north and south of Bakhmut, cutting off three of Ukraine’s four supply routes to the city.
The only exit route left was the one leading further west towards Chassiv Iar, to the south of which the Russians were also trying to advance.