Ukraine, Wagner arrested in Bakhmut: “The Russians undermined the exits”

Do Russian leaders want to make the Wagner group’s mercenaries go the way of the mouse? In the continuous exchange of accusations with Russian military leaders, the head of the militia fighting in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, denounces that the Moscow Ministry of Defense wants to arrest its soldiers by undermining Bakhmut’s exit routes. “Shortly before we left, we detected suspicious activity along our exit route. We started out and found around ten locations where various explosive devices had been planted, ranging from hundreds of anti-tank mines to tons of plastic explosives.”

According to Prigozhin, the traps were “represented by representatives of the Ministry of Defense.” “And when asked why they did it, they point the finger up,” he added, clearly referring to the Russian leadership. Putin’s cook, as Prigozhin is called, also announced that almost all of his units had left the city of Bakhmut, captured after several months of fighting Ukrainian forces, and handed over the recovered positions to the Russian army. Wagner’s role in the war is increasingly controversial. On the one hand, the proximity of the Prigozhin hawk to President Vladimir Putin, on the other, the attacks on Sergej Shoigu, Minister of Defense, who remains in office.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive to regain Russian-occupied territory is still in the cards, although President Volodymyr Zelensky in a Wall Street Journal interview taped in Odessa says it is “ready.” However, Zelensky still tempered his optimism, warning that it could take time and that the operation could be very costly in terms of human lives. “We firmly believe we’re going to make it,” he said. But then he added: “I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it could happen in many completely different ways. But we will, and we’re ready.”