Ukraine war stay updates: Ukraine refuses to settle for decline of Bakhmut Wagner mercenary manager downplays army’s function in ‘capture’

A BBC investigation has uncovered comprehensive Russian defenses and fortifications that have been geared up in occupied sections of the place in advance of Ukraine’s substantially-awaited counteroffensive.

BBC Verify, a new device inside of the British broadcaster charged with investigating and verifying details, video clip, and visuals, reported it had examined hundreds of satellite images of Ukraine and experienced “identified some essential details in the important create-up of trenches and other fortifications in southern Ukraine given that Oct.”

The pictures showed a 15-mile area of Crimean coastline “littered with defence structures put in by Russian troops” as well as defensive lines of anti-tank trenches and dragon’s tooth (pyramid-shaped concrete blocks designed to block navy cars) in the vicinity of the potential area of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, in southern Ukraine.

Investigative journalists and analysts at the BBC also located that a line of anti-tank ditches and trenches now runs along with a important highway around the likely counteroffensive site and that the route is probable to be closely mined Ukraine has understandably not explained in which or when it will start its counteroffensive. Examine BBC Verify’s article in this article.

The report echoes problems voiced by British protection analysts previous Friday when they explained Russia’s huge-scale defense-setting up could confirm a demanding obstacle for Ukraine to get over, warning onlookers not to dismiss Russia’s army as incompetent, as it had been labelled early on in the invasion following preceding problems.

Go through much more right here: Russia’s military has tailored and is now a more formidable enemy for Ukraine, protection analysts say

— Holly Ellyatt

The head of the Wagner Team, Russia’s main mercenary pressure combating in jap Ukraine, downplayed the contribution of common Russian military units in the claimed seize of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, claimed on Saturday that his mercenary fighters captured Bakhmut right after 9 months of intense combating there diminished the city to rubble.

“Fundamentally no one at all out of the army/army assisted us in the getting of Artemovsk [Russia uses the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut], other than Surovikin and Mezentsov,” Prigozhin mentioned, referring to Russian Generals Sergei Surovikin and Mikhail Mizintsev, with whom he has excellent associations.

Prigozhin has a strained connection with Russia’s Defense Ministry and has been a vocal critic of Russian Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the armed forces. Prigozhin has regularly accused the protection ministry of striving to undermine his forces, stating his repeated calls for additional ammunition experienced been ignored.

Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned Saturday that its individual aviation and artillery models experienced helped the Wagner Group to seize Bakhmut but gave most of the credit score to the mercenary power.

Speaking in a voice information on Telegram, Prigozhin reported “tales” about Russian airborne troops assisting to seize the town were “complete and complete lies.”

“There are certainly courageous troopers, astounding Russian fellas that are entirely hindered by the navy … higher ups.”

“There was an enormous amount of money of folks that just ruined factors [for us],” he mentioned, according to an NBC translation of the opinions.

Kyiv denies that Bakhmut has been captured, stating it fights on there.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine is refusing to concede defeat in the largely ruined town of Bakhmut in Donetsk in the east of the country immediately after Russian mercenary forces claimed they have been now entirely in control of the city just after months of battling.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that “Russia did not occupy Bakhmut” as he attended a news meeting at the Group of 7 summit in Japan, rebuffing statements by Russia’s mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin that his forces experienced entirely captured the town Saturday.

Somewhere else on Sunday, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces Colonel-Typical Oleksandr Syrskyi explained his forces even now managed pieces of Bakhmut and that they ended up not ready to give up.

“In spite of the reality that we now handle a slight part of Bakhmut, the great importance of its protection does not eliminate its relevance. This offers us the opportunity to enter the town in situation of a modify in the ecosystem. And it will surely transpire,” Syrskyi stated on Telegram.

“We proceed to progress on the flanks in the suburbs of Bakhmut and are really approaching the seize of the metropolis in a tactical encirclement.”

Syrskyi reported he experienced visited Ukrainian troops and commanders in Bakhmut on Sunday. “We carry on the protection. The situation is hard, but underneath command,” he observed.

Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s mercenary force the Wagner Group, commented on Saturday that “today we took Bakhmut … We have totally taken the full city. From home to home, so that no just one could pedantically complain that a little fragment was remaining un-taken.”

Prigozhin claimed the town, now mainly decreased to rubble and of minor strategic worth (but of a lot more symbolic worth after 9 months of rigorous preventing), would be handed about to the frequent Russian army.

— Holly Ellyatt