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While Zelensky attends the G7 meeting, the head of Putin’s mercenaries announces the capture of Bakhmut

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The head of the Wagner groupYevgueni Prigozhin, announced this Saturday the taking of the bakhmutbesieged for 10 months by his paramilitary units, even though kyiv have said he still controls some areas of that ukrainian city.

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“Today at noon the last redoubt was taken in the city of Bakhmut from the Samoliot district,” he said with a Russian flag in his hands in a video posted on his Telegram account, accompanied by several Wagner fighters.

Prigozhin noted that “the operation to capture Bakhmut, ‘Baymut’s meat grinder’, lasted 224 days.”

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“It started on October 8, 2022 to give the battered Russian army a chance to recover,” the mercenary leader added.

Prigozhin said his troops would hand over control of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine to the Russian army on May 25, shortly after announcing the city’s capture.

Bakhmut has been under heavy bombardment for months.  Photo: Reuters/Anna Kudriavtseva/File.

Bakhmut has been under heavy bombardment for months. Photo: Reuters/Anna Kudriavtseva/File.

“Until May 25, we will completely sweep the city, set up defensive positions and hand it over to the military for them to deal with. For our part, we will go back to the bases,” Prigozhin said in the video released by his press service.

After the video was released, the Ukrainian government claimed it still controls some areas of Bakhmutbut he said the situation on the pitch was “critical” for Ukrainian defenders.

The situation is critical. At the same time (…) our defenders control some industrial facilities and infrastructure in the area, as well as the private sector,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian government has described the situation as "critical".  Photo: AP.

The Ukrainian government has described the situation as “critical”. Photo: AP.

As the leader of the mercenaries made his announcement, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, met with several world leaders after arriving in the Japanese city of Hiroshima for the G7 summit, where they urged China to ‘press Russia to stop its aggression’ against Ukraine.

Zelensky tweeted after landing that peace will be “closer” after this summit, a day after he got the US to clear the way to authorize the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Since his arrival at the summit, the Ukrainian president, who is trying to broaden the circle of consensus in his country, has met with British premier Rishi Sunak, Italian premier Giorgia Meloni and Indian premier Narendra Modi, whose country refuses to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine.

His presence in Hiroshima “may turn the tables” for Kiev, French President Emmanuel Macron said before a meeting between the two heads of state.

The summit of the seven most industrialized economies (United States, Canada, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy) represents a “unique opportunity” for Zelensky to dialogue with his allies, but also with the leaders of other invited countries, such as like India. or Brazil.

Source: Clarin

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