Wagner Group mercenaries have begun their retreat from the embattled city of Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian paramilitary outfit’s chief said on Thursday.
Prigozhin made the announcement in a video on his press service’s Telegram channel. He said his troops will completely withdraw from Bakhmut by June 1 and give way to regular Russian units.
Prigozhin’s fighters have been involved in the bloody battle for Bakhmut since the summer of 2022. Their withdrawal comes after he released multiple heated videos aimed at Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, criticising them for their failure to provide more ammunition for his fighters.
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After leaving Bahkmut, Wagner Group units will rest, re-equip and recruit new fighters, Prigozhin has said.
The Wagner chief said on Saturday that Bakhmut, a small industrial city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, had fallen to his forces. Ukraine’s military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty on Tuesday denied that claim.
Prigozhin said in an interview with pro-Moscow blogger Konstantin Dolgov published late Tuesday that the Wagner Group had lost thousands of fighters in the battle for the city.
“Throughout the [Bakhmut] operation, I recruited 50,000 prisoners, of which about 20 percent died. Exactly the same number died as those who signed up through a contract,” Prigozhin said.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.