
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, has said that Russian forces must capture the strategic Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to proceed with their war campaign but that they were facing fierce resistance from Ukraine.
In a rare interview made public Friday with a Russian military correspondent, Prigozhin said Russia had to establish clear goals in its nearly year-old war on Ukraine, namely to firmly establish its presence in eastern Ukraine or push forward to capture more of the country. The complete capture of Bakhmut was key to those plans, he said.