The Wagner boss raised the flag in Bachmut

 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine  

Raising the flag - claiming "legal control" in Bachmut  

Of: 

Hans Österman  

Published: Today 01.16  

Updated: Today 09.45  

NEWS  

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin published a video in the dark late on Sunday evening.  

He says he has raised the Russian flag in Bachmut in eastern Ukraine: 

- Legally speaking, we have taken over Bachmut.

 

 

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin published a video in the dark late on Sunday evening. He says he has raised the Russian flag in Bachmut in eastern Ukraine.

- Legally speaking, we have taken over Bachmut. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian private army Wagner group, posted the clip on his social media on Sunday evening. The video is filmed in the dark. He claims to have raised the Russian flag at the town hall in Bachmut in eastern Ukraina. 

After many months of fierce fighting in the city of Hell, Prigozhin says it has been taken "in the legal sense". 

In the clip, he also paid tribute to war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in an explosion in St Petersburg on Sunday. It occurred in a cafe formerly owned by Prigozhin and run by an organization he is connected to. 

- We raised a Russian flag with the text "Rest in peace Vladlen Tatarskij" and a Wagner flag. Legally speaking, we have captured Bachmut, he says in the clip and claims that the Ukrainian forces are concentrated in the western parts of the city. 

Prigozhin's suggestion that Bachmut should have fallen has not been commented on by either Russia or Ukraine officially. The data also goes against the consensus of recent weeks in the West that the invasion forces have rather been pushed back into the city.  

As recently as Saturday, the US think tank ISW stated in its daily report that the Russian military had made no confirmed progress in the Battle of Bachmut.