ALBAWABA - Wagner chief Evgeny Prigozhin claimed that his forces is now fully controlling Bakhmut city, RT reported on Saturday.
"Today at noon, Bakhmut was fully captured," Prigozhin announced in a video shared on Telegram. The Wagner leader appeared in the video while surrounded with his fighters as they were holding the Russian flag.
Months after heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Wagner group announced capturing Bakhmut.
Sky News reported citing Prigozhin that Wagner forces will start leaving the city and hand it over to the Russian army by May 25.
رئيس فاغنر: قواتنا ستبدأ مغادرة باخموت في 25 مايو وستسلم المدينة للجيش الروسي — سكاي نيوز عربية-عاجل (@SkyNewsArabia_B) May 20, 2023
Bakhmut is a city in eastern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast.
Bronskungen on May 20th, 2023 at 17:00 UTC »
Okay, this claim seems kind of legit. Last time they claimed to have captured it on an administrative level due to capturing the city center or something weird like that.
We don't need to cope by saying the city is meaningless; that reduces the sacrifices made to hold it. We dont need to say Ukraine retreat tactically to make a pincer movement (that's the bad excuse Russians used a lot early on) or that this was the plan all along.
The defenders did a tremendous job holding the city and CQB is hell on earth. The hope was probably to last until the expected counterattack in early may that allegedly got postponed. Smaller counterattacks against the flanks to alleviate pressure were too little, and too late. It probably facilitiated more of an orderly retreat. Wagner seemed concerned that the flanks might break and pushed hard at great cost.
Every single instance of this war does not have to be a victory or according to plan. Let's not build a culture inherently vulnerable to the slightest set-back or loss. It's a loss, but definitely not a catastrophe either in the grand scheme of things.
mohawk_67 on May 20th, 2023 at 14:13 UTC »
I can capture Asia on the first round of risk. Holding it after that tends to be the issue.
Donkey_Inevitable on May 20th, 2023 at 13:27 UTC »
Technically, Napoleon had taken Moscow. It didn't served him any good tho