(Moscow) The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, claimed Saturday the capture of the city of Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine, epicenter of the fighting, where Kyiv said he was still fighting while judging the situation ” critical “.
If confirmed, the capture of Bakhmout would allow Moscow to post a victory after a series of humiliating reverses. It would also intervene before a major counter-offensive that Kyiv says it has been preparing for months.
Mr. Prigojine’s announcement also comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where he continues to meet to increase international pressure on Moscow.
“On May 20, 2023, today, at noon, Bakhmout was taken in its entirety,” Mr. Prigozhin announced in a video broadcast by his press service on Telegram, where he stands alongside armed men in front of ruined buildings.
“The operation to capture Bakhmout lasted 224 days […] There was only Wagner here,” but no regular troops from the Russian army, added Mr. Prigojine, who is in open conflict with the military hierarchy in Moscow.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Telegram that Ukrainian defenders still controlled “certain industrial facilities and infrastructure” and apartment buildings, although “the situation is critical”.
According to Mr. Prigozhin, Wagner will withdraw his men from the city from May 25 and leave the defense to the regular Russian army, standing ready after rotation and training for future operations from Moscow.
PHOTO LIBKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Ukrainian soldiers fire cannons near Bakhmut, where fierce battles took place against Russian forces, in the Donetsk region on May 3.
“By May 25, we will completely search the town, create defensive positions and hand it over to the military to deal with. On our side, we will go back to the basics,” Mr. Prigojine said.
Threats to the General Staff
Both sides suffered heavy casualties in Bakhmout, a town of some 70,000 before the Russian offensive, now largely devastated by fighting.
Russian forces made slow progress there while taking nearby locations such as Soledar further north. They controlled Bakhmout in recent weeks to more than 90%, no longer fighting within the city against a last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the west.
Ukraine, however, claimed this week the seizure of more than twenty square kilometers from Russian forces north and south of the city, endangering Wagner’s flanks, which are held by regular troops of the Russian army.
Mr Prigozhin accused the Russian army soldiers of fleeing their positions near Bakhmout, while claiming that the general staff did not provide enough ammunition to his men on purpose to weaken his group.
“We did not only fight with the Ukrainian army in Bakhmout, but also with the Russian bureaucracy which put a spoke in our wheels”, launched Mr. Prigojine on Saturday.
Violently criticizing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov once again, he estimated that five times as many men had died in Bakhmout “because of their whims”.
“They will answer for their actions,” said the boss of Wagner.
Russia, which launched its troops to storm Ukraine on February 24, 2022, suffered serious setbacks on the front, being forced to withdraw from the Kyiv area and then from the Kharkiv region in the northeast and the city of Kherson in the south.
The front was essentially fixed throughout the winter, with most of the fighting taking place in Bakhmout.
The two camps are now awaiting a major counter-offensive announced by the Ukrainian authorities, backed by Western arms deliveries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said recently that his army “needs more time” to prepare for the assault.