The leader and founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, said Tuesday that Russian troops now control more than 80 percent of the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, located in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.
»Most of Bakhmut, more than 80 percent, is under our control, including all administrative centers, factories and the city administration,» Prigozhin said on the organization’s official social networks.
Earlier, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov had claimed that Wagner Group mercenaries, together with the Russian Armed Forces, had managed to push back Ukrainian troops to the western edge of Bakhmut, reports TASS.
Prigozhin had already announced in early April that Russian troops had »legally» seized the town after Wagner Group mercenaries seized control of the local administration headquarters. However, the Ukrainian authorities denied such a defeat.
For several weeks now, the most complicated front in the framework of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the one located in Bajmut, as it has been the scene of intense clashes. Prigozhin stated a few days ago that the fighting around this city »practically destroyed» the Ukrainian Army.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
