3.04.2023 03:06
(Akt. 3.04.2023 03:10)
Relentless fighting shakes the region
©AFP
According to the Wagner mercenaries, they conquered the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine “in the legal sense”. “In the legal sense, Bakhmut has been taken,” said Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin on Monday in the online service Telegram. The Ukrainian army had previously stated that it would continue to “hold” Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the “difficult” situation.
According to Wagner boss Prigozhin, the Ukrainian army was “concentrating on the western areas”. According to him, the city’s administrative building was under Russian control. In a video accompanying the Telegram post, the Wagner boss can be seen holding a Russian flag with the inscription honoring Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarski, who was killed in a bomb attack at a St. Petersburg cafe on Sunday.
“The commanders of the units that have taken the town hall and the entire center will put up this flag,” said the Wagner boss. “This is the private military company Wagner, these are the guys who took Bachmut. Legally, it’s ours.” As early as March 20, Prigozhin said his mercenaries controlled “regarding 70 percent” of Bakhmut. The aim of the Wagner units is the “complete liberation of the city”.
The Ukrainian army, meanwhile, said it would continue to “hold” the city in eastern Ukraine. “The enemy has not stopped attacking Bakhmut. However, the Ukrainian defenders are bravely holding the city, fending off numerous enemy attacks,” the Ukrainian general staff said on its Facebook page on Sunday evening – a few hours before Prigozhin’s statement.
The situation in the region “is still very tense,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar. Moscow is trying to deploy “not only the Wagner fighters, but also professional paratrooper units.”
In his daily video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the “difficult” situation in Bakhmut. “I am grateful for our fighters who are fighting near Avdiivka, Mariinka and Bakhmut. Especially Bakhmut! It’s particularly difficult there today,” said Zelenskyy.
The Battle of Bakhmut is the longest-running of the year-long Russian offensive in Ukraine. The city, which had a population of 70,000 before the start of the war, is largely destroyed and deserted following months of fighting. However, the city in the industrial region of Donbass has now acquired a high symbolic importance for both sides in view of the fighting that has been going on for months and has resulted in heavy losses.