20/5/2023–|Last update: 5/20/202305:52 PM (Mecca time)
The founder of the Russian “Wagner” group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced full control of Bakhmut (eastern Ukraine), and said that his forces will start leaving the city next Thursday and hand it over to the Russian army, but a spokesman for the Ukrainian army command in the east confirmed that the battles are still continuing in the city.
And Prigozhin declared – in a videotape broadcast by his media service on Telegram, standing alongside armed men in front of destroyed buildings – that “at noon today, Saturday, Bakhmut was completely controlled.”
The founder of the Wagner Group said that his forces fought alone in Bakhmut, “contrary to what a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said.”
He added that his forces will withdraw from Bakhmut, starting from May 25, to rest and retrain, and to hand over control to the Russian army.
Ukrainian exile
On the other hand, the spokesman for the Second Eastern Operations Command, Sergei Shirevati, denied that Wagner’s forces had taken control of Bakhmut. He said that Ukrainian forces were repelling attacks in the southwest of the city.
The spokesman added that Bakhmut remains the main target of the Russian forces, “but the southwestern region is still under our control. We are repelling the enemy’s offensive attempts there, and the fighting is also continuing towards Liman, Marinka and Avdiivka.”
However, the spokesman said in later statements that his forces would leave Bakhmut for security reasons sooner or later.
Cherivati added that the Ukrainian forces are carrying out an operation to encircle Bakhmut, but nevertheless “the city can be left,” noting that the defense in the part controlled by his forces in Bakhmut “has become problematic.”
For her part, Ghana Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, wrote on Telegram, “The situation is critical. At the same time, our defenders control some industrial facilities and infrastructure in the region.”
Missile interception
The Russian Ministry of Defense had reported that its forces were continuing to fight to control the western part of the city of Bakhmut, and said that the Russian air defenses had intercepted 12 “Himars” and “Storm Shadow” missiles and shot down marches in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Bakhmut battles are one of the major battles that continued for a long time in the Donetsk region of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
The city is a transportation node and a major city in Donetsk Province, about 65 km from the city of Donetsk, and about 600 km from the capital, Kiev.