KYIV (AFP) – Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow and suggesting they may keep up their assault on what Russia sees as a stepping stone to other cities in the Donbas region.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian and Russian media reported explosions across Russian-occupied Crimea, and Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences had detected and destroyed 22 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin had said on Friday that his fighters, who have spearheaded a months-long assault on Bakhmut, would pull out after being starved of ammunition and suffering “useless and unjustified” losses as a result.
But in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday, he said:
“We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue further operations. We have been promised that everything needed to prevent the enemy from cutting us off (from supplies) will be deployed.”
A spokesman for Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment after Prigozhin’s latest statement. Russian officials have repeatedly tried to allay concerns that front-line forces have not received enough supplies. He said he received good ammunition.
On the Ukrainian side, in response to a Reuters question about Prigozhin’s comments, Ukraine’s Eastern Command spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty said the Russian army had “more than enough” ammunition.
He said that Prigogine’s comments were intended to divert attention from the heavy casualties Wagner suffered from throwing so many troops into battle.
“In the last 24 hours, there have been 489 artillery shellings in the Bahmut area. Is this an ammunition shortage?”
Prigozhin’s threat to withdraw from Bakhmut was received by Russian forces as Ukraine made final preparations for a counterattack, supported by thousands of armored vehicles donated by the West and newly trained troops.
The battle for Bakhmut has been the most intense of the conflict, costing thousands of lives on both sides in months of grinding warfare.
Ukrainian troops have been pushed back in recent weeks but have clung on in the city to inflict as many Russian losses as possible ahead of Kyiv’s planned big push against the invading forces along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russian forces were evacuating residents from the town that serves the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
In its morning update, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian forces were evacuating local Russian passport-holders to the port city of Berdyansk and the town of Prymorsk, both on the coast of the Sea of Azov. After Russian long-range bombers attacked the southern region with five Kh-22 cruise missiles, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaly Kim said in a social media post that buildings and territory of an unspecified company had been damaged overnight.
