Wagner owner: War may last years
Ukrainian officials say energy grid hit by Iranian drones
KYIV, Ukraine — The owner of the Russian Wagner Group, a private military contractor actively fighting in Ukraine, has predicted that the war could drag on for years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial Donbas region. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.
The statement from Prigozhin, a millionaire who has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was dubbed “Putin’s chef” for his lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, marked a recognition of the difficulties that the Kremlin has faced in the nearly yearlong campaign.
Russia suffered humiliating setbacks last fall when the Ukrainian military launched successful counteroffensives to reclaim broad swaths of territory in the east and the south. The Kremlin has avoided making forecasts on how long the fighting could continue, saying the “special military operation” will continue until its goals are fulfilled.
Russian forces have focused on Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk provinces that make up the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that Russia could launch a new broad offensive to try to turn the tide of the conflict as the war approaches the oneyear mark. But Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesman, Andriy Chernyak, told the Kyiv Post that “Russian command does not have enough resources for largescale offensive actions.”
In recent weeks, some of the fiercest fighting has centered on the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna and the Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut, which are about 30 miles apart in the Donbas.
Ukraine’s military said
that Bakhmut — where Moscow’s troops have been closing in on vital supply lines — remained the main focus of Russian forces, with 124 strikes and 54 “clashes” in the area over the past day. The battle for Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the war, billed as a “meat grinder” with heavy casualties on both sides.
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhny, the top commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said Saturday that he had discussed the fierce fighting in the east and overall battlefield picture in a phone call with Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Despite constant enemy pressure, we continue to hold Bakhmut under our control and take measures to stabilize the front line around this town,” he said in a statement, adding that the “key to success” would be “an appropriate amount of weapons, equipment and ammunition.”
Bakhmut’s strategic value, military analysts say, is as a crossroads for some of the region’s highways. Capturing the city would not guarantee that Russia could make major advances in the east, but it would better position its forces to do so.
As Russian troops have
pushed their attacks in the Donbas, Moscow has also sought to demoralize Ukrainians by leaving them without heat and water during the bitter winter.
Officials said Ukrainian utility crews were working Saturday to repair new damage to the country’s energy grid after Russia launched a swarm of Iranian-made attack drones overnight on the heels of a huge barrage of cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and drones on several cities.
Air defense systems destroyed 20 of the Shahed136 drones from 6 p.m. to midnight, the Ukrainian
Air Force said in a statement early Saturday. But three energy facilities in the Dnipro region of southeastern Ukraine were hit, including one in Kryvyi Rih for the second time in a day.
“They targeted our critical infrastructure,” Serhii Lysak, the head of the regional military administration, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, calling the damage “significant.”
Drones were shot down over the southern regions of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the Ukrainian military’s southern command.
The drone attack occurred after Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles in a day of strikes across Ukraine, in what both Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian air force described as a “massive” assault. Twelve people were injured across the country, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, and the state-owned power utility said that several thermal and hydroelectric power plants had been badly hit.
The company, Ukrenergo, called the situation “difficult but under control.”
Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, was hit hard, according to officials. The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, cited “extensive” damage to infrastructure and said that emergency power shutdowns would be in place for “several days.”
The attacks also disrupted operations at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.