Wagner mercenaries said today they have taken over the city hall building in Makhmut in eastern Ukraine, adding that its occupation means they now “own” the city “legally”.

“From a legal point of view, Bahamut is occupied. The enemy is concentrated in the western districts of the city,” its head Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram.

In the video accompanying the announcement, Mr. Prigozhin displays a Russian flag with a caption written in honor of a Russian military blogger, a big supporter of an invasion — a “special military operation” in the Kremlin’s phrase — in Ukraine, who was killed yesterday Sunday in a bombing in Agia-Petersburg. “The commanders of the units that took the town hall building and the entire center will raise this flag,” he assured.

🎥Wagner chief declares#Bakhmut captured.”
“April 2, 2023, 23:00 (Moscow time), the administrative center of the city. The commanders of the assault groups of PMC Wagner will raise the Russian flag and the flag of PMC Wagner over the administration of the city of Bakhmut.” pic.twitter.com/B60yzMhYqi

— Military Advisor (@miladvisor) April 2, 2023

Oleg Zhdanov, a well-known Ukrainian military analyst, said fighting had engulfed the center of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces repulsed 25 enemy attacks, but Russian troops captured the AZOM steel plant, which Ukrainian troops defended for several days.

In recent months, Russian troops have slowly moved north and south, cutting off supply lines for Ukrainian troops, and then captured its eastern part.

On March 20, Mr. Prigozhin announced that Wagner had taken 70% of Bakhmut.

Kyiv characterizes the battle in Bakhmut as the need to pin down Russian troops on the entire eastern front.

“Limited” strategic value

Bahamut, which had a population of around 70,000 prior to the start of the war, has been the scene of ongoing fighting for several months now. Due to the length of the battle and the fact that both sides suffered heavy casualties there, the city gained a lot of symbolic importance in the operations to control the industrial region of Donbass.

At the same time, however, analysts and officials consider the strategic importance of the city to be very limited. This view is shared by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Some analysts argue that if Moscow’s forces capture it, it will open the way for them to two other Ukrainian strongholds, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, continuing efforts to take control of all of Donbass (eastern Ukraine), which was the Kremlin’s declared target as it gave away order to invade the territory of Ukraine in February 2022.

“If Bahamut falls, it won’t necessarily result in a decisive victory for one side or the other,” said Sean McFate, a US Army veteran and assistant professor at the School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Maxwell of Syracuse University.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) came to a similar assessment, stating that if Russian troops take the city, they probably won’t have the necessary forces to advance further, as they lack combat power and the necessary reinforcements. advantage of an important victory.

“Tribute to the memory” of a military blogger who died in an explosion using an explosive device in St. Petersburg

Tonight, the Russian Foreign Ministry paid tribute to a military blogger who supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and died in an “attack” in St. Petersburg, while the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the lack of response from the West.

Military blogger Vladen Tatarsky, a staunch defender of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was killed and 25 others wounded today when an “explosive device” exploded at a cafe in central St. Petersburg, authorities said.

Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, had over 560,000 followers on the Telegram app and was one of the most popular military bloggers. In his blog, he commented on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Tatarsky was among hundreds at a ceremony at the Kremlin last September to announce Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions that partly belong to Moscow. The annexation was condemned as illegal by most countries at the UN.

Bloggers like Vladen Tatarsky “were defenders of the truth,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Telegram, adding that the lack of reaction to Tatarsky’s death from Western governments “despite the concern they express about the well-being of journalists and freedom of the press speaks About many things”.

“Russian journalists constantly feel the threat of reprisals from the Kiev regime,” the Russian diplomat said, adding: “Thanks to Russian war correspondents, the world sees real pictures of operations and reveals what is happening in Ukraine.”

Vladlen Tatarsky was “dangerous” to Ukraine and was killed “in the line of duty”, according to Zakharova.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters, AP, AFP.