The city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, is “virtually surrounded” by Russian forces, the head of the paramilitary group Wagner said on Friday.
“Wagner’s units have practically surrounded Bakhmout, there is only one road left to get out,” Yevgeny Prigoyine said in a video published by his press service on Telegram.
Mr Prigozhin, whose men are on the front lines in this battle, called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the city, which is now largely destroyed and where both sides have suffered heavy casualties.
“If earlier we faced a professional Ukrainian army fighting against us, today we see more and more old people and children. They are fighting but their life in Bakhmout is short, a day or two,” Mr Prigojine said.
“Give them a chance to get out of town, it’s practically surrounded,” he added.
The video then shows three people, an elderly man and two young people, asking Mr. Zelensky in front of the camera to let them go.
Despite a strategic importance disputed by experts, Bakhmout has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the Donbass industrial region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who traveled there in December, vowed to defend this fortified city “as long as possible”.
The Ukrainian military leadership admitted on Tuesday that the situation there was “extremely tense” in the face of Russian attacks.
Russian forces have advanced north and south of Bakhmut in recent weeks, cutting off three of Ukraine’s four supply routes to the city.
The only way out was to go further west in the direction of Chassiv Iar, south of which the Russians also tried to advance.