Wagner to withdraw its troops

The head of Wagner says his forces have started pulling out of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and handing over control to the Russian military.

It comes days after he said troops from the Russian private military contractor had captured the ruined city.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s millionaire owner with long-time links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a video published on Telegram that the handover will be done by June 1.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.

It was not possible to independently verify whether Wagner’s pullout from the bombed-out city has begun.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian general staff said heavy fighting was continuing inside the eastern city after a nine-month battle, which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said yesterday that Wagner units have been replaced by regular troops in the suburbs but Wagner fighters remain inside the city.

Ukrainian forces still have a foothold in the south-western outskirts, deputy minister of defence Hanna Maliar said.

Mr Prigozhin’s Bakhmut triumph would deliver a badlyneeded victory for Mr Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine last February has lost momentum and now faces the possibility of a Ukrainian counteroffensive using weapons supplied by Western allies.

Top Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is already under way, saying it should not be anticipated as a “single event” starting “at a specific hour of a specific day”.

Meanwhile, Russia unleashed a barrage of Iranian-made Shahed 36 drones against Kyiv in its 12th night-time air assault on the Ukrainian capital this month – but the city’s air defences shot them all down, Ukrainian authorities said yesterday.

The Kremlin’s forces also launched 30 airstrikes and 39 attacks from multiple rocket launchers as well as artillery and mortar attacks across Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said.

At least one civilian was killed and 13 others were hurt in Ukraine on Wednesday and overnight, the Ukrainian presidential office said yesterday.

STRUCK: Damaged military vehicles in Belgorod, Russia.