Fear of Ukrainian offensive
Battle for Bakhmut – Prigozhin asks for help
03/20/2023, 11:14 p.m
For months, Russian fighters from the Wagner group have been trying to conquer the city of Bakhmut. Now the mercenary chief Prigozhin is urgently asking Moscow for reinforcements. According to his information, Ukrainian forces in the region are planning a counter-offensive to cut off his units.
In the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Russian private army called on the defense ministry in Moscow to assist Wagner. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin published a letter to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asking for reinforcements.
Prigozhin said that according to his information, the Ukrainian armed forces were planning a large-scale offensive in late March and early April. The aim is to cut off the Wagner troops from the Russian forces. Schoigu should urgently take the necessary steps to prevent this. Otherwise, Prigozhin warned that there would be “negative consequences” for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Currently, the Wagner units control about 70 percent of Bachmut and continue their attacks until full liberation,” he said. In his letter to Shoigu, he also included information on the formation of the Ukrainian armed forces, which was not published.
According to Prigozchin, the Wagner troops are the only Russian units fighting in Bakhmut. The Russian army is therefore active on other front sections in the Donetsk region. In Ukraine, on the other hand, there is confidence that they will be able to defend Bakhmut. 70,000 people used to live there, and thousands are still staying there.
For two months now, the armed forces have withstood the enemy’s heaviest attacks, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said in Kiev. Many would have believed that the defense would not last more than a week or two at the most. The generals and officers not only managed to defend Bakhmut, they said their reserves were not yet exhausted.
Bakhmut has been fought over since late summer, and for two months the fighting has turned into the bloodiest battle in the Russian war of aggression that has been going on for more than a year. The city is the main part of the line of defense between the cities of Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, established after the Russian conquest of Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk. Should the city fall, the route to the major cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk would open up for Russian troops.