2023-05-20 17:04:50
The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhinclaimed this Saturday, May 20, the total control of the city of Bakhmutbut Ukraine rejected the claim, saying fighting was still going on.
Prigozhin made the claim in a video in which he appeared in combat uniform in front of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners.
“Today (Saturday), at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said. “We have completely taken over the entire city, from house to house.” For his part, Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Archyde.com: “That’s not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut“.
Bakhmut has been the focus of the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war in Ukrainewhich is almost at the end of its mes 15.
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could be heard explosions distant in the background as Prigozhin spoke during the video, in which he said that his forces were to withdraw from Bakhmut beginning May 25 to rest and return to training, handing control over to the Russian regular army.
Prigozhin mocked the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenskiand the US president, Joe Bidenwho participated this Saturday in Japan in a summit of the G7 in which the Ukrainian war was prominent among world leaders. Addressing Zelensky, Prigozhin said: “Today when you see Biden, kiss him on the top of his head, say hi for me“.
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Prigozhin repeated complaints he has frequently made in the past that his forces suffered far greater than necessary losses due to inadequate support and ammunition supplies from the army. This month he threatened to withdraw troops from him after posting a fiery tirade against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu while at a field of bloody corpses.
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Through the fault of the Russian bureaucracy and the “whims” of Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, “five times as many men died as they should“, he said in the video on Saturday.
His claim to victory followed fierce fighting around the city last week, in which Ukraine claimed to have pushed back some Russian forces.
British defense intelligence said on Saturday that it was “very likely” that Russia had deployed up to several battalions to reinforce the Bakhmut sector, following Ukrainian tactical advances on the flanks of the city. This represents a “remarkable commitment on the part of the Russian command“.
“Russian leaders will likely continue to view the capture of Bakhmut as the main immediate war objective that would allow them to claim some degree of success in the conflict,” he tweeted.
Prigozhin himself has recognized that Bakhmut, a city of 70,000 inhabitants Before the war, it had no strategic importance, but it acquired enormous symbolic importance for both sides due to the intensity of the fighting and the magnitude of the losses.
JD / ED
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