A few days ago, the head of the Wagner troop had announced that he would be withdrawing from Bachmut and handing over control to the Russian army. The handover has now begun. This was also confirmed by the government in Kiev.
According to its boss, Yevgeny Prigoschin, the Russian mercenary group Wagner has begun withdrawing its own troops from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The city will be completely left to the control of regular Russian armed forces, Prigozhin said in a video. This process will be completed by June 1st.
The Wagner troops would withdraw to their camps for rest and preparation for the next sortie. “We are withdrawing, resting, preparing and then we will be given new tasks,” said Prigozhin. According to him, two experienced Wagner fighters are to remain in Bakhmut to support the Russian army.
Shaded: territories occupied by Russia
The Ukrainian side confirmed that the enemy was swapping troops around Bakhmut. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said Wagner troops in the suburbs of Bakhmut would be replaced by regular Russian soldiers. However, Prigozhin’s fighters are still in the city itself. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow initially did not comment on this.
Previously alleged capture of Bakhmut announced
The Wagner boss and the Russian Ministry of Defense declared at the weekend that they had taken the entire city in the Donetsk region. Prigozhin also announced that he would withdraw from May 25. Ukraine has rejected the Russian account that the city, which has been contested for months, is completely under Russian control. According to Maljar, the Ukrainian armed forces currently control the suburbs in the south-west of Bakhmut.
In the course of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Prigozhin also repeatedly and publicly criticized the Russian military leadership, accusing it of incompetence and failure to supply his troops leading the Battle of Bakhmut. Around 70,000 people once lived in Bachmut, but the city has now been almost completely destroyed.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.