Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries fighting for Bakhmut, has said that his troops have fully taken the Donetsk city which has been fiercely fought over for months.
Holding a Russian flag in front of his troops in a video released on his Telegram channel on Saturday, Prigozhin said his forces had established full control after a siege that all but destroyed the city. Ukraine has denied the claims.
“At noon on the 20 May, 2023, Bakhmut was fully taken. We have completely taken the whole city, from house to house,” he said, adding that his troops would hand Bakhmut over to Russian forces next week.
With the noise of gunfire in the background, he said: “The operation to take Bakhmut has lasted 224 days.” He added that “the meat grinder began on October 8, 2022, in order to give the Russian army the chance to recover.
“I want to say thank you, to the Russian people who supported us and to those who died in this war.” He praised the role of his fighters, saying that they had “acted together as one well-coordinated team, one, like a united army.”
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the claims. Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s Defense Ministry for comment. Ukrainian Armed Forces Eastern Group spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty told Reuters Kyiv’s troops were still fighting.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram on Saturday that the situation in Bakhmut was “critical,” adding that “at the same time, our troops are still defending the Litak area where defenders control certain industrial and infrastructure facilities.”
Max Seddon of the Financial Times tweeted about Prigozhin’s statement, adding, “Take with a grain of salt.”
Another FT journalist, Christopher Miller noted that Prigozhin was standing near the destroyed Bakhmut train station. “While it’s possible his forces took the last 400-yard stretch of road & destroyed buildings in the city’s westernmost area, his claim of full control would be more convincing if he were standing along that stretch,” he tweeted.
In the six-minute video, Prigozhin again took aim at the Russian military establishment he has criticized for weeks, in particular Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov whose decisions meant that “five times more guys died than should have.”
However, he did praise Vladimir Putin who “gave us the chance and the highest honor of defending the motherland.” Prigozhin said that the Wagner Group would withdraw from Bakhmut on May 25 for “rest and retraining,” handing it over to Russia’s regular military.
His press service said that a “full video of the hoisting of flags” will be uploaded later on Saturday.
Update 5/20/23, 11 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.