Wagner’s chief of staff, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his forces, which have played a major role in Russian advances to the east, were straining to encircle Bakhmut.
“In Bakhmut, the vast majority, more than 80 percent, is now under our control, including the entire administrative center, factories, warehouses, the administration of the city,” he said in a video posted by a Russian military blogger.
The Russian-established head of the Donetsk region, one of four regions declared by Moscow last September, said Russian forces had backed Ukrainian defenders into a corner.
“In the western areas where his units are dug in, they have no choice but to come forward and give themselves up,” Russian news agencies quoted Denis Pushilin as telling state television.
