Moscow, April 11, (dpa/GNA) – Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries, says it has now seized most of the contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after months of combat.
“The majority of Bakhmut, effectively more than 80% is under our control,” Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published by a Russian military blogger.
The report could not be independently verified.
Prigozhin said that fighting was continuing in residential areas with high-rise buildings, but that all the industrial areas and municipal buildings were in Russian possession. His comments tallied with the findings of Western experts, such as the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Prigozhin also confirmed that Russian regular forces were protecting the flanks of the Wagner mercenaries, with airborne units deployed to the north and south of the devastated city.
GNA