“Bahmut needs to be (captured) so that our troops can operate more comfortably,” Wagner’s chief insisted.
The head of the private military company Wagner said on Friday that Russian troops, which he believes are necessary to capture the strategic city of Bakhmut, to continue the campaign to take control of Donbassare encountering fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, during a rare interview with a Russian war correspondent, said that Moscow should set clear goals in its one-year campaign this month: to decide whether to establish a presence of the eastern part of Ukraine or if it will proceed to occupy a larger part of the country.
The Russian military invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, eight years after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and created self-proclaimed “people’s democracies” in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Mr Prigozhin, a businessman originally active in the catering and catering sector, has repeatedly drawn the spotlight on himself during the war, particularly when he criticized Russia’s military leadership and certain officials.
Wagner’s mercenaries are playing an increasingly important role, which became clear last month, in the operation to take Soledar, a town near Bahamut, where fighting and shelling has lasted for months and many are talking about a “meat machine”.
“Bahmut needs to be (captured) so that our troops can operate more comfortably,” Wagner’s chief insisted.
“Why is it called a meat grinder? Because the Ukrainian army is sending more and more units,” he added.
“It is probably too early to say that we are getting closer. There are many ways out and fewer ways in. The Ukrainian soldiers are well trained (…) and like any big city, it is impossible to take it by attacking from the front.”
“We’re doing really well,” he continued.
“First we need to quietly take Artyomovsk and then we will be able to say loud and clear that we have taken it,” he added, using the name of the city from the days of the USSR.
He also compared the battle for Solentar to the six months it took the Soviet army to defeat the Nazis at Stalingrad.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov describes the situation in Bakhmut as the most difficult for Kiev’s forces, as the Russians deploy more and more troops there. “The situation south of Bahamut is very difficult; the town itself is the hottest sector of the front right now.”
RES-EMP
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