Klescheevka is under Russian control, the private military company’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says.
Wagner Group troops have captured the strategic village of Klescheevka in Russia’s Donetsk Region from Ukrainian forces, the head of the private military company Yevgeny Prigozhin has said.
“One can safely say that the settlement of Kleshcheevka, which is one of the important suburbs of Bakhmut (called Artymovsk in Russia), has been completely taken under control by the Wagner PMC units,” Prigozhin claimed in a statement distributed by his press service on Thursday.
But while Kleshcheevka has been reportedly “liberated,” intense fighting continues around the settlement, with “the opponent clinging on to every meter of land,” he pointed out.
The Russian Defense Ministry hasn’t yet commented on the situation in Kleshcheevka.
“Contrary to some opinions that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are fleeing Artyomovsk, this is not the case,” Prigozhin said, but still expressed confidence that Artyomovsk, which is a major Ukrainian stronghold and logistics hub “will be captured.”
Klescheevka is located around 9km southwest of Bakhmut. The village, which was populated by just over 500 people before the conflict, had been heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military.
The claimed capture of Klescheevka follows the Russian takeover of the key town of Soledar last week as well as several other settlements in the area as part of the operation to encircle Artyomovsk.
The Russia Defense Ministry praised “the courageous and selfless actions” of the Wagner Group’s strike teams during the battle for Soledar, but pointed out that victory was achieved by a “mixed group of forces,” including aviation and artillery units.
Late last year, the US Department of Commerce labeled the Wagner Group “one of the most notorious mercenary organizations in the world” and put it on the Military End User List, which could potentially restrict the company’s access to any technology made with American equipment anywhere in the world.
Prigozhin ironically reacted to the move by saying that it will definitely make it tougher for the Wagner Group to get ammunition and repair the M-777 howitzers and other US-supplied weapons that its troops have allegedly seized.
A Spanish journalist’s report from the Bakhmut region stated he counted 27 divisions of Ukraine soldiers spread over a 50km area. Fully manned at 4,000 men per division that represents about 108,000 men.
However the Divisions have taken heavy losses so there could be as few as 60,000 soldiers in this one area. That figure fits about right with Ukraine causalities of about 36 – 40,000 in December.
His concern was not only do the Ukrainians face certain defeat in Bakhmut but they now face a very real threat of encirclement
Worse their US and NATO masters seem to have no appreciation of the threat to those troops lives as they keep feeding the battalions and these divisions into the meat grinder
NZ is complicit in their silence of this unfolding catastrophe. Russia can not lose. In every facet it is the superior of the wests proxy war against them. Militarily, economically, psychologically and morally.
It is the west who have forced this war on Russia and who will now learn what Napoleon and Hitler learnt.
A negotiation to peace is simply a call away for the US and the west. All they need to do is admit defeat. They should be used to this from their experience in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan etc. it’s not like this would be their first capitulation.
Pick up the phone guys. Humble yourselves and maybe Russia will show the mercy to Ukrainians that you yourselves have not
I see Bakhmut is now Operationally Encircled, and that Russia has now mounted a substantial offensive advance in Zaporozhye.
The heavy concentration of Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut has exposed several other critical areas for the Western led proxy war there.
Now it’s real time. Steel to steel.
And it doesn’t matter about the msm spew of political propaganda or the macho posturing of the west and Ukraine because now it’s about true war. True killing and true deprivation of the human condition.
Now it’s about two combatants fighting to the death and it is abundantly clear Russia has Ukraine and the West in a killing choke hold. The death rattle is near
And the WEF, NATO and US couldn’t put Humpteys men together again