Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed that the city had fallen to his mercenaries.
Ukraine:
Russia’s private army Wagner claimed full control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting, on Saturday, as Kiev said fighting was continuing but acknowledged the situation was “critical”.
Bakhmut, a salt mining town that once had a population of 70,000 people, has been the scene of the longest and bloodiest fighting in Moscow’s more than year-long Ukraine offensive.
Bakhmut’s fall in Russia, where both Moscow and Kiev are believed to have suffered heavy losses, would have high symbolic value.
If confirmed, Bakhmut’s defeat would allow Moscow to bring home a win after a series of humiliating defeats.
It would also come before a major retaliatory offensive that Kiev has been preparing for months.
The announcement by Wagner came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the G7 summit in Japan.
The mercenary group’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed the city had fallen to his mercenaries in a video posted on Telegram, in which fighters held up Russian flags over a background of ruins.
“Today, May 20, around noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said in the video, adding that Wagner fighters would search the captured town before handing it over to the official Russian army.
“By May 25 we will thoroughly examine (Bakhmut), create the necessary lines of defense and hand it over to the army,” Prigozhin said. “We’ll go to the field camp ourselves.”
Artillery could be heard in the background of Prigozhin’s video.
Ukraine, which earlier this month claimed successes in and around Bakhmut, said fighting for the town was ongoing.
Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malayar posted on Telegram, “Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. Situation serious.”
She said that Ukrainian soldiers were “guarding” the “airplane zone” of the city.
“As of now, our guards control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area,” she said.
It was not possible for AFP to verify either claim.
– ‘Bakhmut meat grinder’ –
Wagner is reported to have led the battle for Bakhmut and is believed to have suffered heavy losses in the months-long storming of the city.
“The operation to capture Bakhmut – the Bakhmut meat grinder – lasted 224 days,” said Prigozhin.
Prigozhin, embroiled in an increasingly public battle with the official Russian army, said that Moscow’s losses would have been much smaller if not for the incompetent generals.
He has long complained that Wagner was not supplied with the proper amount of ammunition.
“Here (in Bakhmut) there was only Wagner,” he said in the video. “We not only fought the Ukrainian military here, we fought the Russian bureaucracy as well.”
He did not say how many Wagner fighters were killed in Bakhmut, but said losses were “five times higher” than those caused by Russia’s military leadership.
He blamed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for turning the offensive into “their own amusement”.
“One day in history they will pay for their actions,” said Prigozhin.
Wagner’s ranks included an unknown number, considered as high as ex-convicts, the previous year Prigozhin had visited Russian prisons to charm the prisoners, promising them amnesty upon their return if they were to survive. should remain.
“The general, former employees of law enforcement from the FSB (security service) and former criminals were active here as a team,” Prigozhin said.
It has recently launched unprecedented attacks against Moscow’s military leadership.
The front in eastern Ukraine had been largely frozen until the previous winter, with most of the fighting taking place around Bakhmut.
The two camps are now awaiting a retaliatory strike announced by the Ukrainian authorities, backed by Western arms supplies.
Zelensky has recently said that his forces need more time before launching an attack.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)