Claims by the head of Vladimir Putin’s private army that Russian forces had seized full control of the war-torn Ukrainian town of Bakhmut were “pretty desperate”, Western officials said on Wednesday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads the Wagner mercenary group, claimed in a video earlier this week that from a “legal” point of view, Bakhmut had been captured by Russia.
He was also filmed raising a Russian flag in tribute to Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky who was killed in an explosion in St Petersburg on Sunday.
But the Western officials downplayed claims that the town, which has been the centre of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces for months, was now under Moscow’s control.
They said Mr Prigozhin’s claim was “pretty desperate as a tactic”. They added that it was most likely aimed at a Russian audience as Mr Putin’s attempt to seize the town has been held up by stiff resistance from Kyiv’s forces.
The officials pointed to exhaustion on both sides in the fight for Bakhmut and highlighted the level of destruction in the town after months of shelling and fighting.
“There is no town or city that is left,” the officials said. “It would not resemble what it was a few years ago. Bakhmut is completely destroyed as a town and is unliveable by anyone’s standards.”
In the video posted on his Telegram channel on Monday, Mr Prihozin said he was planting the Russian flag for the war blogger Tatarsky, reportedly a close associate of the Wagner boss.
Russian authorities have since detained Daria Trepova, 26, in connection with the explosion in the cafe, which is reported to have links to Mr Prighozin.
Human rights groups have said that Ms Trepova and her husband may have been involved in anti-war protests in the past. The Kremlin said Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee was probing links to Ukraine and connections to Alexei Navalny, one of President Putin’s most outspoken critics.
There has been speculation that the killing of Tatarsky could have been the result of feuding between the Kremlin’s military chiefs and Mr Prighozin, who are said to have fallen out as Russia’s war effort in Ukraine has stalled.
The Western officials said that whether it was anti-war protesters or the result of an internal feud, the blast was “significant”.
“It shows internally in Russia there are divisions,” they added.
