Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, which is participating in the Russian war against Ukraine, claims that the Russian flag and the Wagner flag have been raised over the Bakhmut city administration. Statement published his press service in Telegram on the night of April 3.
“April 2, 11 p.m. sharp. Behind me is the building of the city administration. This is the Russian flag. [Убитому российскому пропагандисту] Vladlen Tatarsky is inscribed “good memory” on this flag. Legally, we took Bakhmut… The banner of PMC “Wagner”. These guys took Bakhmut. Legally it’s ours” – Prigogine said.
He claims that the invaders took “the entire central quarter”, and “the enemy remained in the western quarters,” that is, the Ukrainian military.
The video was filmed against the background of the ruins, there are no links to a specific area in it.
Channel “Unloading Wagner” published a fuller video of the statement, in which Prigozhin claims that he “likes to walk around the night Bakhmut” because “here you will never run into a big leadership, including the military.”
In the video, he also says that he “met” the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky.
“We agreed on a new meeting: I called him to Bakhmut, he says:” Let’s better meet in Kyiv. In general, we did not agree to anything, we decided that after a while we would go to Warsaw together, ” – Prigogine says.
In the morning summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on April 3 says that the battles for Bakhmut continue.
“The enemy does not stop storming Bakhmut, trying to take it under complete control. Our soldiers repelled more than 20 enemy attacks”, – said in the message.
On April 2, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar stressed that the situation in Bakhmut is very tense, the enemy will use not only Wagnerians, but also professional paratroopers . “The response to the current situation is carried out competently, taking into account all the circumstances, tasks and the principle of military expediency,” she wrote.
Intense fighting in the Bakhmut region began in July 2022 and are still ongoing. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the Russian Federation threw the most trained units of regular troops and Wagnerians to capture Bakhmut, most of the artillery of the occupiers is concentrated in this direction.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in early February that “no one will surrender Bakhmut.” He noted that if the Russians take Bakhmut, they will want to “go further.”
On March 6, at a meeting of the headquarters of the supreme commander in chief, the army leadership advocated the continuation of the defensive operation in Bakhmut. On March 15, at another meeting of the headquarters, according to Zelensky, the opinion of the participants was still unanimous: to strengthen the defense of Bakhmut and destroy the invaders as much as possible.
The defense operation in the Bakhmut area is of the utmost strategic importance for deterring the Russian occupiers and is key to the stability of the defense of the entire front, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny emphasized on March 14.
On March 26, Zaluzhny reported that the situation in this direction was being stabilized.
