The Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the statement of the head of the “Wagner” PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin that the 72nd separate motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Armed Forces escaped from Bakhmut, reports Ukrainian Pravda.

“Prygozhin’s reports about the escape of the 72nd separate motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Armed Forces from the area of ​​the city of Bakhmut and about the “500 corpses” of Russians left there are true. The 3rd Airborne Assault Brigade is grateful for the publicity of our successes at the front,” the 3rd Separate Airborne Assault Brigade wrote in Telegram.

Military personnel reported that in two days in the southwestern areas of the city, the attack aircraft of the 3rd Airborne Assault Battalion belonging to “Azov” destroyed 64 occupiers; data on the liquidation of another 87 are being clarified. The brigade says that among these fighters there are also Wagnerites.

The Ukrainians say they captured five Russians and destroyed several caches of Russian ammunition, mortars and “more than one BMP”.

The head of the Wagner paramilitary group said in a new video message on Tuesday that Russian regular army soldiers had left their positions in Bakhmut, where bloody fighting has raged for nearly 10 months, and accused the Kremlin of failing to protect Russia. assuming that Moscow will not win the war in Ukraine.

“Today (Tuesday – no) one of the units of the Ministry of Defense escaped from one of our flanks (…) They abandoned their positions, they all fled,” Yevhen Prigozhin, who was in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, accused, AFP notes.

“Why can’t the state protect the country?” he said in a video posted on the Telegram channel during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s participation in a military parade in Moscow in honor of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

“Victory Day is the victory of our ancestors, we did not deserve even a fraction of this victory,” Prigozhin said.

“There is a crime called “destruction of the Russian people” (…) and this is done by a small group,” he said, pointing to the General Staff.

Last week, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut on May 10 if he did not receive the ammunition he demanded. On Sunday, he said he had received a “promise” of sufficient supplies, apparently ruling out an immediate exit from Bakhmut.

Although he said on Monday night that there were indications that he would receive the much-desired ammunition, he returned with a message saying that he had not actually received it.

If it is true, then the Russians left Bakhmut on Victory Day itself on Red Square, where he said that“With sacrifices and heroic deeds, our soldiers save the world from Nazism”