Russia’s Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has given a rare and revealing interview with pro-Moscow blogger Konstantin Dolgov, fresh off the weekend declaration of victory over Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east.
As the brutal battle for Bakhmut rages on, Ukraine this week has claimed that it has made significant advances around the ruined city in the Donetsk region, while Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group has said that its fighters have made gains as well.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin clarified late Saturday in an audio statement that despite regular Russian forces having “retreated” from parts of Bakhmut’s north (in his words), his own Wagner fighters are still advancing.
Tensions rose this past week between Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, Russia’s paramilitary group, and Russian officials when the Wagner chief threatened to pull his forces out of Bakhmut if the Russian Defense Ministry didn’t provide the organization with the necessary arms to continue the offensive. Wagner and Russian troops control 90 percent of the destroyed city.
During a Monday press briefing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed that Russian forces have suffered more than 100,000 total casualties in the strategic city of Bakhmut since December. According to Kirby, that estimate includes 20,000 troops killed in combat and another 80,000 wounded.
On Wednesday, Seymour Hersch, an investigative journalist, published a report on Substack alleging that the CIA is aware of large-scale corruption in Kyiv and the embezzlement of U.S. aid.
According to Russian officials, at least 75 percent of the ruined city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region is under the control of Russian forces. The announcement follows months of intense fighting in the strategic area, with the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner, going so far as to raise its flag along with a Russian flag over the rubble of government buildings in Bakhmut’s city center last week. The outcome of the battle for the city is seen as a bellwether for the remainder of the war by many observers.
The Ukrainian battle for Bakhmut has not been going well for Kyiv, with reportedly high losses and dwindling munitions and other resources in the east, and despite numerous reports of a much anticipated Spring counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces, the talk has shifted from a planned counteroffensive to a need for compromise.
In the early hours of Monday morning, Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group claimed at least partial victory over Bakhmut by raising both the Russian and Wagner group flags over government administration buildings in the city.
Top Zelensky officials are considering a potential ‘strategic pullback’ from the beleaguered eastern city of Bakhmut. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted that he is not prepared to order the continued defense of the city at all costs. Both Ukraine and Russia are suffering tremendous casualties in the fight for the city, but Russia has superior artillery fire, which it has been using nonstop around the clock. The city is almost completely surrounded by Russian troops.