Ukrainian troops are still resisting the Russian forces besieging the city of Bakhmut, the capture of which will take another 3-4 weeks, Yevgeny Prigozhin – founder and head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner – claimed today in a message on the Telegram platform .

Prigozhin’s new assessment came just days after he claimed that Russian forces had captured the strategically important city.

The attackers are seeking to cut the supply lines of the Ukrainian troops, which will allow them to invade Bakhmut from different points and proceed to “destroy key military targets”, says the head of Wagner.

Against a backdrop of dozens of graves of his mercenaries, Prigozhin said: “This cemetery should one day become a monument for future generations,” acknowledging that his forces had suffered heavy losses in the past weeks of fighting to take Bahmut.

The Ukrainian military has been vigorously defending Bakhmut for months. Some parts of it are already under Russian control, the German News Agency (dpa) points out, but Ukrainian soldiers are holding their positions on the western side of the city, which had a population of about 70,000 before the start of the war.