Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said on Wednesday that the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region could be surrounded in March or April, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Ukrainian guns fire at Russian positions in BakhmutPhoto: Madeleine Kelly / Zuma Press / Profimedia

However, Prigozhin added that this is “difficult to predict” and Russia’s success in encircling the city depends in part on the amount of Western weapons delivered to Ukraine.

“We will not celebrate too soon,” Prigozhin admitted, as quoted by his Telegram press service.

“Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is strong resistance, shelling, and the meat grinder is working,” he added, referring to the heavy losses on the battlefield.

Wagner, who has recruited thousands of prisoners to join his forces in Ukraine, has led an assault on Bakhmut since the summer and recently captured a number of nearby towns in an attempt to encircle the city.

“The enemy is becoming more active and is constantly sending new reserves. Every day, 300 to 500 fighters from everywhere arrive in Bakhmut, the artillery fire is increasing day by day,” says Yevgeny Prigozhin.

On the same day, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhiy Cherevaty, said on national television that over the past day, Russian troops had lost 119 soldiers and 163 were wounded near Bakhmut. “Fierce battles continue,” he added, Kyiv Independent quotes.

On February 11, Prigozhin said that it may take two years for Moscow to fully capture Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Reuters reports.

He added: “if we have to reach the Dnipro, it will take about three years.”

Together with the Russian army, Wagner’s group participated in the months-long battle for Bakhmut.

In early February, the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian regular forces had begun replacing exhausted Wagner mercenaries after capturing the salt mining town of Soledar.

The capture of Bakhmut will allow Russia to cut off Ukrainian supply lines to the area and open the main road leading to two key Ukrainian cities – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

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