Wagner’s leader proclaims his victory in Bakhmout, and announces the next withdrawal of his troops

2023-05-20 16:23:44

A victory over heaps of ruins. It is with this macabre staging that the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine, claimed, on Saturday May 20, the complete capture by his men of the city of Bakhmout, epicenter of fighting in the east of the Ukraine. “On May 20, 2023, today, at noon, Bakhmout was taken in its entirety”, assured this close friend of Vladimir Putin in a video broadcast by his press service on Telegram. We see him alongside armed men in front of ruined buildings.

244 days of fighting

As Wagner’s boss reminds us in his message, the fight is fierce in Bakhmout and its region: this Saturday, we were at 244 days of fighting. But is it really finished? Or is it for Evguéni Prigojine to claim victory to better get out of this quagmire? He made it clear that his men would quickly transfer control of Bakhmout to the Russian army. “By May 25, we will completely search the town, create defensive positions and hand it over to the military to deal with. On our side, we will go back to the basics”said Yevgeny Prigojine.

In recent weeks, Wagner’s boss has stepped up open criticism of the Russian military hierarchy, which he accuses of incompetence. This Saturday, he reissued them, hammering: “We did not only fight with the Ukrainian army in Bakhmout, but also with the Russian bureaucracy which put sticks in our paths. » In his video, he once again sharply criticized Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

kyiv denies

Minutes after the video of Wagner’s boss was broadcast, the authorities in kyiv claimed to still control certain areas in the city of Bakhmout, while acknowledging that the situation was « critique ». Earlier in the week, Ukraine claimed to have retaken more than twenty square kilometers from Russian forces to the north and south of the city, while acknowledging an advance by Wagner’s fighters within the city itself, where no longer resided. only a small pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the West.

Evgeny Prigojine’s announcement came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where he has been meeting to increase international pressure on Moscow. The day before, US President Joe Biden gave his agreement for the delivery of F16 type combat aircraft, the terms of which remain to be specified.