Wagner boss demands clear goals
Prigozhin: “Conquest of Donbass could take two years”
2/11/2023 5:41 p.m
Actually, the Russian attack on Ukraine should only last a few days. Instead, the invasion will soon mark its first anniversary – and according to Wagner boss Prigozhin, it’s far from over. He calls on the leadership in Moscow to finally formulate clear goals.
Yevgeny Progozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, says he expects tough fighting in Ukraine for years to come. “The conquest of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will take at least a year and a half to two years,” the head of the Wagner group said in an interview published by a Russian military blogger. If it is desired to advance further west to the Dnipro River, this will take about three years.
In the interview, he does not explain how Prigozhin calculated this schedule. However, the information is a massive deviation from the original goal: the “special military operation”, as the attack on Ukraine is still called in Russia, was supposed to last only three days and end with the capture of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
At the moment, however, the fronts in the east of the country are almost frozen. For six months now, Ukrainian and Russian troops have been fighting a bloody trench war near the small town of Bakhmut, which has cost the lives of several thousand soldiers. According to Prigozhin, Russia must capture the city in order to continue its campaign. “Bachmut is needed so that our troops can operate undisturbed,” he said on Friday. However, one encounters the bitter resistance of the Ukrainian defenders.
Prigozhin demands that Russia must set itself clear goals in its almost year-long offensive. It must consolidate its presence in eastern Ukraine or advance further in order to conquer other parts of the country.
Russia reports progress
On Friday, the Russian forces reported further successes in their offensive on Bachmut and the city of Wuhledar. Russian soldiers have “reinforced their positions in the northern part,” said Denis Puschilin, head of the self-proclaimed “Republic” of Donetsk installed by Moscow, according to Russian news agencies. It was possible to cut “three of the four supply routes” of the Ukrainian army into the city. Only the connection to Chasiv Yar, further west, is still active.
The action is part of the strategy that Russian troops have been pursuing for months, with heavy casualties, to encircle Bakhmut from the north, south and east. In Wuhledar, further south, Russian forces were already advancing on the immediate vicinity of the city, according to Puschilin. The information cannot be verified.