Bakhmut has been the scene of the bloodiest battle since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, and in the video, the Wagner leader claims to show a group of mercenaries near the city center while Ukrainian troops appear to be holding out.
Fighting has raged in the eastern town of Bakhmut for weeks as Russian forces believe its capture will pave the way for the remaining urban centers in the breakaway Donetsk region.
While Ukrainian forces appear to be fortifying their positions by digging new trenches near the front line west of Bakhmut, frightened residents have been seen fleeing the city.
“We stood to the end. We wanted to stay. But how can we? Our neighbor’s apartment is now destroyed. It’s time to leave,” Svitalana, 47, said as the city of 70,000 before the war turned into a ghost town.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s private Wagner army, posted a video showing his fighters brandishing the Wagner banner and musical instruments on top of a ruined building he says is close to the city center. I couldn’t check the images.
Bakhmut, a salt and gypsum mining town, is in Donetsk, one of four regions annexed by Russia last year. Moscow believes it is the gateway to capturing more cities in the breakaway region after heavy losses last year.
It comes after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met briefly on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in New Delhi, India, in what is believed to be their first exchange of views since the war began on Feb. 24. Year.
According to a senior US official quoted by ReutersThey spoke for no more than 10 minutes, during which Mr. Blinken urged Mr. Lavrov to reverse Moscow’s decision to suspend the bilateral arms control treaty with Washington.
They said “on the go”, Russian news agencies quote the words of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
President Vladimir Putin last week announced Russia’s decision to suspend participation in the recent START treaty, a nuclear deal with the United States aimed at limiting the number of nuclear warheads each superpower can have.
This happened after he accused the West of being directly – without providing evidence – involved in attempts to attack his strategic air bases.
Speaking at a UN conference in Geneva, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US was trying to “investigate the security of Russian strategic sites declared under the new START treaty by arming the Kiev regime with supported strikes against them.”
At the G20 meeting, Mr. Blinken reaffirmed Washington’s support for Ukraine.
“We must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukrainian territory in the interests of world peace and economic stability,” Blinken said.
“Unfortunately, this meeting was again overshadowed by Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine,” he added.
Russia has accused the West of turning work on the G20 agenda into a “farce” and blaming Moscow for its own economic failures.
This confirms reports from Russia, vilified by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that Ukrainian saboteurs deliberately attacked Russian citizens as a false provocation. However, he also seemed to mean that the Russian “partisans” would launch an attack.
Russia accused the Saabuters of shooting at a car, killing one person and injuring a child after crossing the border into the Bryansk region of Russia. They also reportedly held hostages in the shop during the raid. The Russian security service later said the situation was “under control”.
Putin said during a short televised address that the armed group had deliberately fired on the car knowing it was carrying civilians.
“You will not achieve anything. We will crush them,” he said, saying that Russia was fighting “terrorists and neo-Nazis.”
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska tweeted that Moscow was “recklessly shooting at civilians” following a “deliberate” rocket attack on a residential building in Zaporozhye that killed four people.
“People were screaming from under the rubble. It was hard to hear. We were in shock,” said Yulia Kharitenko, a 36-year-old resident of an apartment building. Reuters.
“We ran out of what we wore. Our cat was left there, scared. We don’t know if he’s alive.”
Additional agency reporting
Source: I News
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