The head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner said Thursday that his fighrers have begun withdrawing from the hotly contested Bakhmut as they hand control of the eastern city to Russia’s military.
The announcement comes days after Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his troops had captured the city after a grueling nine-month battle.
Prigozhin said in a video published on Telegram that the handover will be completed by June 1.
Ukrainian officials have insisted pockets of resistance remain in the eastern Ukrainian city, and Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces still have a foothold in southwestern outskirts.
The Russian defense ministry did not immediately comment on the handover from Wagner.
Bakhmut delivered a badly needed win for Russia as its invasion of Ukraine has lost momentum and Russian troops brace for a Ukrainian counteroffensive using weapons from Western allies.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Thursday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was already underway. He said the counteroffensive would not be “a single event that will begin at a specific hour of a specific day.”
“These are dozens of different actions to destroy the Russian occupation forces in different directions, which have already been taking place yesterday, are taking place today and will continue tomorrow,” Podolyak said on Twitter.
Developments:
- In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine will be “one of the strongest signals from the world that Russia will only lose.” The comment comes after President Joe Biden last week agreed to allow allies to send fighter jets to Ukraine and to help train Ukrainian pilots on the aircrafts.
- A reservoir crucial to Ukraine’s drinking water and power supply is seeing dangerously high water levels because of damage to a Russian-occupied dam that has gone unrepaired for months.
- Ukraine successfully defended against 36 Russian drones launched overnight at multiple cities, including Kyiv, Zelenskyy said in a statement.
- A record number of people − 606,000 − moved to Britain in 2022. This number is up from just under 500,000 in 2021 amid increased immigration from Ukraine and Hong Kong.
Moscow signs deal on deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
Russia and Belarus signed a deal Thursday on deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, according to statements from both countries’ defense ministries.
The deal allows Russia to store the weapons on its ally’s territory while retaining control of them.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia “is not giving nuclear weapons to Belarus” and that control over their use and deployment remains in Moscow’s hands.
Officials didn’t immediately release additional information about when the weapons would be deployed. But Putin previously said the construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1.
Contributing: The Associated Press
