According to Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigojine, the Russian army is just over a kilometer from the center of Bachmout, a town Moscow troops have been trying to capture since the summer.
The Russians claim to be near the center of Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine which they have been trying to capture with heavy casualties since the summer and where the Ukrainians are trying to “buy time” to prepare for a counteroffensive , in her opinion, should not be long in coming. Franceinfo summarizes the main events of the day.
Wagner boss claims Russians were advancing towards central Bakhmout
In Bakhmout, the current epicenter of the conflict, Evguéni Prigojine, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, called for a new advance from his men who are fighting there on the front lines. “This is the municipal administration building, the administrative center of the city,” he said on Saturday, pointing from the roof of one building to another building to illustrate this progress. “It’s a kilometer two hundred,” “it’s the area where there’s fighting,” he added in a video broadcast by his Concord company’s press service. These statements are not verifiable from an independent source in the near future.
The Russians have been trying for several weeks to encircle the city of around 70,000 before the conflict and have managed to cut off several important roads for supplies to the Ukrainian soldiers. While observers question the strategic importance of Bakhmout itself, the battle – the longest since the Russian offensive began more than a year ago – has become symbolic for both Kiev and Moscow, which is looking to claim victory thereafter, and has acquired several humiliating setbacks.
The counteroffensive “is not far off,” the Ukrainian staff assures
“The real heroes are the defenders who carry the Eastern Front on their shoulders,” Ukraine’s Ground Forces commander Oleksandre Syrsky said in a statement. “We have to buy time to gather reserves and launch a counter-offensive that is not far away,” he said, quoted by the army press service.
Three dead in Russian attack in Kherson
At least three people were killed and two others injured in a Russian attack in Kherson in southern Ukraine, authorities said on Saturday, two days after the deadly artillery barrage. This new attack comes two days after Russian artillery shells killed three people in the same city of Kherson, according to the Ukrainian presidency. Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name in southern Ukraine, was liberated by the Kiev army last November after several months of Russian occupation. Since then, there has been regular Russian fire in the region, which is partially controlled by Moscow.