Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, said on Saturday it had captured the city of Bagmouth in eastern Ukraine, the epicenter of the fighting, where Kiev said it was still fighting while judging the situation to be “critical”.
If confirmed, the capture of Bagmouth would allow Moscow to record victory after a series of humiliating setbacks. It would intervene before a major counter-offensive that Kyiv says has been preparing for months.
Since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Prigojine’s announcement comes as he continues to meet to increase international pressure on Moscow.
“On May 20, 2023, today, afternoon, Bagmouth was completely taken,” said Mr. Prigozhin made the announcement in a video broadcast by his news service on Telegram, where he stands with armed men in front of ruined buildings.
“The operation to capture Bagmouth lasted 224 days (…) Wagner was the only one here” but there were no regular troops from the Russian army, Mr. Prigozhin said.
A critical situation
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Khanna Malir said in a telegram that Ukrainian security forces still control “some industrial facilities and infrastructure” and apartment buildings, although “the situation is critical”.
Mr. According to Prigozhin, Wagner would withdraw his men from the city on May 25 and leave the defense to the regular Russian army, standing ready after rotation and training for future operations from Moscow.
“By May 25, we will thoroughly search the city, create defensive positions and hand it over to the army to deal with it. On our side, we will return to the bases,” Prigozhin said.
Threats to public servants
Both sides suffered heavy casualties in Bagmouth, a town of about 70,000 people before the Russian attack, now largely destroyed by the fighting.
Russian forces advanced there slowly while taking nearby places like Soledar further north. They controlled more than 90% of Bagmouth in recent weeks, no longer fighting inside the city against the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the west.
However, Ukraine said this week it had captured more than twenty square kilometers of territory from Russian forces north and south of the Russian army, threatening Wagner’s flanks held by the Russian army’s regular troops.
Mr Prigozhin accused Russian soldiers of abandoning their positions near Bagmouth, while the public service said he deliberately did not supply his men with enough ammunition to weaken his group.
“We fought not only the Ukrainian army in Bagmouth, but also the Russian bureaucracy, which put a spoke in our wheels”, Mr. Prigozhin started on Saturday.
Wims
Once again criticizing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, he estimated that five times as many men had died at Bagmouth “because of their choices”.
“They will answer for their actions,” Wagner’s boss reiterated.
Russia, which launched its forces to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, suffered severe setbacks on the front, was forced to withdraw from the vicinity of Kiev, and then from the Kharkiv region in the northeast and the city of Kherson in the south.
The front was mainly repaired throughout the winter, with most of the fighting taking place at Bagmouth.
Both camps now await a major counteroffensive announced by Ukrainian authorities backed by Western arms supplies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said his army “needs more time” to prepare for an attack.
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