Array
NATO’s Secretary General says the city of Bakhmut could fall to the Russian Wagner Group within days after the group’s founder claimed it had made progress controlling the eastern part of the city.
Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have spearheaded the fight in Bakhmut, said they have taken full control of all districts east of the Bakhmutka River that crosses the city. The city’s center lies west of the river.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials commented on Prigozhin’s claim. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that closely monitors the fighting, said Russian forces were likely in control in the areas cited by Prigozhin following a Ukrainian withdrawal.
That was followed by a statement from Jens Stoltenberg:
????NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Bakhmut could fall „in the coming days“.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday that the embattled frontline town of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, could come under Russian control. pic.twitter.com/lkuY27tlOv
????World News 24 ???????????? (@DailyWorld24) March 8, 2023
There’s a much more upbeat assessment from the NY Times in which Ukrainians claim Bakhmut will be the Wagner Group’s last stand.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has been forced to use more of its professional recruits in Bakhmut to replace its depleted supply of enlisted prisoners, who are perishing by the thousands in the longest battle of the war, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.
The claim suggested that Ukraine sees an opportunity, despite the heavy casualties it has suffered in the eastern city, to exhaust Wagner’s nearly suicidal prisoner assaults, which Ukraine’s commanders regard as one of Russia’s most effective tactics.
