The head of the paramilitary Wagner Group claimed on Sunday that Ukrainian forces hold positions on the southwestern outskirts of the city of Bakhmut, a major hotspot in the Russia-Ukraine war.
‘Yes, unfortunately, there is such information … Today, there is information that there are already observation posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,’ Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio statement on Telegram.
Prigozhin’s comments came in response to a question about remarks by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, who claimed in a statement on Telegram a day earlier that the country’s armed forces control the southwestern outskirts of the fiercely contested city.
Russian forces have been trying for months to capture Bakhmut, a transport and logistics hub in the Donetsk region, which is part of the largely Russian-speaking industrialized Donbas region, which last year Russia claimed to have annexed.
On May 2
, the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner paramilitary group claimed their forces took complete control of the city.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied the claims during a press conference after last month’s G-7 summit in Japan.
Source: Anadolu Agency