Ukraine
Yevgeny Prigozhin says his troops are fighting old men and children in a besieged town in eastern Ukraine
The head of Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner said his fighters had “virtually surrounded” Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city the Kremlin has been trying to seize for months.
Only one street remains under Ukrainian control, Yevgeny Prigozhin added in a video posted online urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to leave the city.
While the mercenary group’s leader’s claims could not be corroborated, the situation in the embattled city appeared extremely precarious as Ukraine appeared to be preparing extensive new defensive positions, including around the nearby town of Kramatorsk.
The situation remained very confused on Friday, with heavy military traffic on the streets and claims that several bridges near the city had been destroyed.
Video posted online showed a railway bridge over the Bakhmutka River east of the city being blown up, while other footage allegedly showed damage to a small road bridge.
Amid mounting speculation that the Ukrainian defenders may be preparing for a retreat, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said his defenders in the fighting for Bakhmut inflicted casualties on the Russian attackers by a ratio of 7:1.
“It’s difficult there, but remember that every day our boys and girls send hundreds of them where they’re supposed to go since they came here to kill us,” Danilov said.
Ukrainian soldiers in a muddy trench near Bakhmut on Thursday. Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
Visiting the western city of Lviv to see wounded soldiers recovering in hospital, Zelenskyy thanked those injured during Bakhmut’s “heroic defense.”
Statements on social media by Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the Bakhmut region seemed to indicate that they were holding their positions despite being under intense pressure.
“Friends, at the moment there is no withdrawal of troops from Bakhmut,” a soldier from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade said on Twitter. “Fighting continues in all areas of the city, the 93rd stands and continues to carry out the tasks assigned to it. The situation is actually complicated, but only trust official sources and don’t panic.”
In the video posted by Prigozhin, recorded on the roof of a building, the Wagner chief claimed his forces were increasingly fighting old men and children, rather than the professional Ukrainian army.
Footage showed what appeared to be three captured Ukrainians – an elderly man and two boys – who looked terrified and begged to go home. They appeared to be conversing under extreme stress in what appeared to be a choreographed performance.
On Thursday, Prigozhin released another video showing his fighters in Bakhmut. Portal located the footage east of Bakhmut, about 2 km from the city center.
Ukraine has vowed to defend the “Bakhmut Fortress” but faced Russian troops determined to capture the city, whose symbolic importance now surpasses its military importance.
Ukrainian officials said fighting was becoming increasingly difficult after Russia claimed several villages near Bakhmut in recent weeks.
The latest fighting came as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew to Washington to meet President Joe Biden in Washington later on Friday. Also on Friday, the US announced it would announce further military aid to Ukraine in the form of a $400 million arms package that would include ammunition for existing systems.
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