KYIV: Russian mercenary group Wagner Group has taken full control of the eastern part of Bakhmut, founder Yevgeny Prigoshin said.
US media reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the capture of Bakhmut would open the way for Russian troops to enter eastern Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Bakhmut could be in the hands of Russia in the coming days. Meanwhile, Germany and Russia have come out against a New York Times report that a pro-Ukraine group was behind last year’s attacks on Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned against jumping to conclusions about who was responsible. He also alleged that this is part of the process to blame Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned whether reports of the Nord Stream pipeline attacks were a concerted effort to ignore and how assumptions could be made without investigation.
