THE acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said that Russian forces will capture Bakhmut soon amid the tense situation and Ukraine sending their reserves into battle.
Although he did not give an exact timeframe, Pushilin said the capture of Bakhmut by Russia is potentially very close.
But Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Paramilitary Wagner, is concerned about the tactics and urged regular Russian troops supporting his group to hold on as hard as they can for a few more days.
He also said the city is unlikely to fall into Russian forces in the coming days, complaining about a setback at one of the locations to the north of Bakhmut.
The Wagner boss said, quote, ‘’Bakhmut has not yet been taken. There is a suburb called ‘Samolet’. It is an impregnable fortress formed from a range of apartment blocks, located in the south-west of Bakhmut. The toughest battles are going on there right now.’’
‘’The enemy clings to every house, every entrance and every garden plot. We finish Bakhmut to the end in order to avoid any rumors.’’
Wagner’s group is on the frontlines of Bakhmut, and they are supported by the regular Russian army, although Prigozhin has repeatedly accused the leadership of the Russian military of not giving his group enough ammo to capture the city.
Meanwhile, Russian media reports say that Ukrainian forces are holding a sector in the western part of the city and that Russian forces are helping civilians remaining in the area to evacuate.
It can be remembered that on Tuesday, Ukraine said its troops had retaken 20 square kilometers in the north and south of Bakhmut’s outskirts but said that Russian forces were still advancing.
But Wagner, on the other hand, claimed on Thursday that they advanced up to 400 meters in Bakhmut and that Ukrainian controls less than 1-kilometer square of the city.
Recent advances of Russian forces were also reported by a German newspaper on Wednesday, saying that Ukraine was in control of around 20 buildings in West Bakhmut.
