Russian Mercenary Boss Says He Wants Ukrainian Bakhmut For Its ‘Underground City’

LONDON – The founder of Russia’s highest-profile mercenary group said on Saturday he wants his army and regular Russian forces to capture him. Bakhmut, a small town in eastern Ukraine Because it had “underground cities” that could house troops and tanks.

Over 5 months of vigorous Russian push to seize Bakhmut Some Western military analysts are baffled, and the fact that heavy losses were incurred on the Russian side and that Ukraine had built a defensive line to retreat close to it, if Russia won there, it would be a pure It says that it means to become a thing.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group fighting in the Battle of Bakhmut, detailed on Saturday why he thought its capture was important.

“The cherry on the cake is the system of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, which is actually a network of underground cities. Combat vehicles can also move around.”

Prigozhin said that if Bakhmut fell to Russia, Moscow’s political capital would likely be strengthened given Wagner’s role in the fighting in Moscow, and that weapons stockpiles had increased since World War I. He said it was kept in an underground complex.

His comment was a reference to the region’s vast salt and other mines, including over 100 miles of tunnels and vast cellars that hosted football matches and classical music concerts in more peaceful times.

A White House official said Thursday that Washington wants Prigogine to control the salt and gypsum mines in the area for commercial reasons. .

Prigozhin, who is under sanctions in the West, cited other advantages of taking Bakhmut, calling it a “full-fledged logistics center” with its own defensive fortifications.

He commented on the news outlet’s Telegram channel as artillery fire echoed through the nearly deserted streets of Bakhmut on Saturday despite Russia’s self-declared truce to celebrate Orthodox Christmas, which was a ruse by Kyiv. rejected as