KIEV, May 7 (Portal) – Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared on Sunday to drop plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. She said Moscow had promised them more guns and suggested continuing their attack on what Russia sees as a stepping stone to other cities in the Donbass region.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian and Russian media reported explosions in Russian-held Crimea, and Russia’s defense ministry said its air defenses spotted and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Black Sea.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had said on Friday that his fighters, who have led a months-long attack on Bakhmut, would withdraw after running out of ammunition and suffering “useless and unjustified” casualties as a result.
But in an audio message published on his Telegram channel on Sunday, he said: “We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations. from stocks).”
A spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment following Prigozhin’s recent statement.
Russian officials have repeatedly tried to allay concerns that their frontline forces were not receiving adequate supplies. Referring to the Russian army as a whole, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that it had “received sufficient ammunition” to effectively inflict damage on enemy forces.
On the Ukrainian side, in response to questions from Portal about Prigozhin’s comments, Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Command, said Russian forces have “more than enough” ammunition.
He said Prigozhin’s comments are aimed at distracting attention from the heavy casualties Wagner suffered by throwing so many troops into battle.
“Four hundred and eighty-nine artillery strikes in the past 24 hours in the Bakhmut area – is that a starvation of ammunition?”
Prigozhin’s threat to withdraw from Bakhmut underscores the pressure Russian forces are under as Ukraine makes its final preparations for a counteroffensive, backed by thousands of Western-donated armored vehicles and newly trained troops.
The battle for Bakhmut was the most intense of the conflict, costing thousands of lives in months of bitter warfare on both sides.
Ukrainian troops have been pushed back in recent weeks, but held on in the city to inflict as many Russian casualties as possible before Kiev planned a major push against the invading forces along the 1,000 km (620 miles) front line.
[1/2] A Ukrainian service member of a 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade, named after the Knights of the Winter Campaign of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fires an anti-tank grenade launcher at a front line, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, near the town of Bakhmut, Ukraine May 3, 2023 . Portal/Sofiia Gatilova
EVACUATION
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his late night video address that nine Ukrainian demining experts involved in demining were killed in a single Russian attack in the southern Kherson region on Saturday.
“They restored… the safety of our people,” Zelenskyy said.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday that the Russians would continue to remove what they described as looted property from front-line settlements in the occupied territories of the Zaporizhia region, under the pretext of capturing civilians.
In Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaliy Kim said in a social media post that a building and territory of an unspecified company were damaged overnight after Russian long-range bombers attacked its southern region with five Kh-22 cruise missiles.
At least five people were injured in the eastern Kharkiv region after an S-300 missile hit a parking lot in the city of Balakliya, Governor Oleh Synyehubov said.
In the southern city of Kherson, which Ukraine liberated last November but has been under constant Russian attack, six people have been killed in various strikes over the past 24 hours, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Russian forces have stepped up their long-range missile strikes on civilian and infrastructure targets in recent days.
The overnight strikes coincided with Ukrainian and Russian media reports of multiple explosions in Russian-held Crimea.
Baza, a Telegram channel with ties to Russian law enforcement, reported that Ukraine sent a number of drones over the peninsula, with Russian air defenses shooting down at least one over the port of Sevastopol.
Portal could not independently verify the reports.
Attacks on Russian targets have intensified over the past two weeks, particularly in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming a role in these attacks, says the destruction of enemy infrastructure is in preparation for a planned ground attack.
Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Lidia Kelly; writing by Dan Peleschuk and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Hugh Lawson
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