Bitter fighting for the city of Bakhmut in the Donbass has been going on for months. The Russian Wagner group now reports another success in the battle: the mercenaries claim to have captured a village less than two kilometers from the city center.
According to their own statements, the Russian mercenary group Wagner has taken a suburb of the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has been hard fought for months. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters had taken "complete control" over the village of Yahidne.
The mercenary group published a photo of armed and masked men with a Wagner flag in front of the town sign of Jahidne on Telegram. The village is less than two kilometers from the center of Bakhmut. The day before Prigozhin had announced the capture of the village of Berkhivka northwest of Bakhmut. Wagner mercenaries have been fighting for the city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine for months, operating largely independently of the Russian military command.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the press service of the Wagner Group accused the Ukrainian troops of having blown up a dam near Bakhmut in order to slow down the advance of Russian fighters. This information could not initially be verified independently.
Russia has been trying for months to bring Bakhmut under its control. The fighting for the industrial city has brought to light tensions between the Russian army and the Wagner mercenary group, which the Kremlin, however, denies.
Last Tuesday, Prigozhin accused the military leadership of committing "high treason" by not delivering the equipment the mercenaries demanded. He called on his compatriots to support his demand for ammunition and to put pressure on the army. Just two days later, Prigozhin announced that ammunition would be delivered soon. The unprecedented call by the Wagner boss was taken as further evidence of the extent of the tensions between the mercenary force and the Russian general staff.
The Battle of Bakhmut is the longest-running battle in the year-long Russian offensive. According to analysts, the city is of little strategic importance - a revenue would therefore have primarily symbolic value for Moscow.
