Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner’s mercenary group, said in a video released on Friday that the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is “virtually surrounded” by Russian troops and that Kyiv’s forces have only one way out, Reuters reported.

Prigozhin’s men led an offensive in eastern Ukraine for months, with Moscow eyeing Bakhmut, for which it uses its Soviet name Artemivsk, as a stepping stone to capture larger cities such as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

In the video, Prigozhin, in military uniform, called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to withdraw troops from the city, which “Wagner” had been trying to capture for months.

“Units of Wagner’s private military company practically surrounded Bakhmut. There is only one way (open for Ukrainian forces). The ticks are getting tighter and tighter,” Prigozhin said.

Chief Wagner said his troops are increasingly fighting against the elderly and children, rather than professional Ukrainian soldiers.

The video then shows three captured Ukrainians – an elderly man and two young boys – looking scared and demanding to be released home.

On Thursday, Prigozhin published another video showing his fighters in Bakhmut. Reuters geolocated the image to the east of Bakhmut, about 2 km from the city center.

The Ukrainian army ordered the withdrawal of one of its elite units from Bakhmut

The Ukrainian military command has ordered the withdrawal of one of its elite units from Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has become the epicenter of Russian military operations for months, reports Unian.

Its commander, Robert Brovdi, announced the withdrawal of the “Birds of Magyar” drone unit.

“At midnight on March 2, the unit received a combat order to immediately withdraw from Bakhmut to a new place of hostilities. What are the reasons for the transfer from Bakhmut when I was on duty here for 110 days? First of all, I am a military man, so I will not comment on the command’s orders (…) I gave myself and you a word not to engage in politics,” he said in a video published on social networks.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the operational command “East”, which is responsible for this front, have not yet commented on the information.

The unit commanded by Brovdi, known on social media as Magyar, is a tactical reconnaissance formation using unmanned aerial vehicles. The unit became famous in social networks largely thanks to a video published by its commander, one of the most famous Ukrainian soldiers.

What is happening around Bakhmut

Deputy Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Volodymyr Nazarenko, in an interview with the Ukrainian radio station NV late on Thursday, said that the situation in Bakhmut is critical, but Kyiv troops are desperately defending the city and digging new trenches, trying to hold it. Russian attackers.

“[Rușii] they don’t think about casualties when they try to storm a city. The task of our forces near Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses as possible on the enemy. Every meter of Ukrainian land costs the enemy hundreds of lives,” he said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said on Thursday night that over the past day, Ukrainian troops have repelled more than 170 attacks on five main areas of the front line.

Zhdanov reported that the Russians are trying to surround Bakhmut from the north, east and south, and said that the area in the west “is probably the only sector of Bakhmut where the initiative belongs to our troops, not the Russian occupiers.”

The General Staff in Kyiv released an assessment on Thursday that suggests a Russian presence inside the city, not just on the outskirts.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Thursday that Russian forces “advanced into Bakhmut and continued ground attacks around the city”.

The fighting here, which was initially waged by mercenaries of Wagner’s PMK Yevgeny Prigozhin, was for several months some of the fiercest since the war began in late December last year.

Jakub Yanovsky, one of the military analysts who writes articles for Oryx, a well-known website that tracks military equipment and casualties on both sides of the war in Ukraine, described the fighting here in October as a veritable “meat grinder” for the Russians. army

Wagner’s group leading the attack on Bakhmut

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin recently announced the opening of an investigation for “war crimes” against Yevgeny Prigozhin. He said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian army is fiercely resisting the attempts of Russian troops to capture the city of Bakhmut and is drawing massive reinforcements for this bloody battle, according to Reuters.

Prigozhin’s unit leads the assault on Bakhmut, the capture of which will be a step for Russian troops to advance to large cities in the east of Ukraine, such as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

Wagner’s group has been recognized by the United States as an international transnational criminal organization, in the same way as the Italian or Japanese mafia, and members of the American Congress are insisting that henceforth it be classified as a “terrorist group.”

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