The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday that the long-awaited Ukrainian spring counter-offensive had begun in the area around Bakhmut.
Fox News Digital could not independently verify Prigozhin’s claims, and intense fighting continued for months around the salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Chief Wagner said “unfortunately” Ukraine’s offensive was “partially successful”, though he did not go into detail on how.
Ukrainian soldiers fire mortars in the direction of the city of Ugledar, Donetsk on April 18, 2023. (Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Earlier in the week, he took to messaging app Telegram to say that Ukrainian troops were “tearing flanks” as Russian soldiers reportedly abandoned their posts due to heavy casualties.
The Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade echoed these claims and claimed that forces of Russia’s 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade fled Bakhmut, although it also noted that “Wagnerites” were among the soldiers who fled the their positions.
Prigozhin was questioned on Thursday on his most recent remarks following comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the planned counter-offensive has been delayed as Kiev awaits help from Western allies.
SENSITIVE MATERIAL. THIS IMAGE MAY OFFEND OR DISTURB Yevgeny Prigozhin speaks beside the bodies of what he says are Wagner fighters killed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an undisclosed location on May 5, 2023. (“Concord” press service/Handout via Reuters)
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Chief Wagner dismissed these comments and claimed that Zelenskyy was “deceptive” in saying the offensive had not yet begun.
Russia has been attempting to take full control of Bakhmut since last summer and the fighting has escalated to an even greater level after two successful Ukrainian counter-offensives in September and November last year that ousted Russian troops from the Kharkiv region and Kherson city .
But despite a grueling ground war that raged in and around Bakhmut, Russia has been unable to take the city.
Ukrainian soldiers fire at frontline targets near Ugledar, Donetsk on April 18, 2023.
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Western defense officials questioned Russia’s efforts to take the city, noting its lack of a significant strategic advantage for Moscow.
Analysts have also suggested that while a second counter-offensive could take place around Bakhmut, it is believed that Kiev will likely focus its efforts on capturing a vital triangular area in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Reuters contributed to this report.
