Wagner chief asks Zelenskyy to pull out troops from 'practically surrounded' Bakhmut

Russia's shadowy mercenaries group, PMC Wagner's chief E.V. Prigozhin has asked Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "save his soldiers, who would be killed if they did not surrender" in Bakhmut or the Artyomovsk region in Donetsk. In a video published on the PMC Wagner's press service on Telegram, Prigozhin said that Bakhmut was "almost completely surrounded" by Wagner fighters, confirming the reports that the heavily destroyed fortress city during a months-long battle was totally encircled. 

PMC wagner has surrounded Bakhmut, says Prigozhin

Prigozhin, in the visual, also showed several captured Ukrainian soldiers, one of whom appeared to be minor. Wagner head stated that his forces were now fighting against "old men and children rather than the professional Ukrainian army."

"The Wagner paramilitary group units have practically surrounded Bakhmut, only one road remains" to leave the city," Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said, calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "to abandon the city immediately."

Credit: Wagner group/telegram

Credit: wagner group/telegram

“The pincers are tightening,” Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group paramilitary group who has spearheaded the battle of Bakhmut, said, adding that only one road into the city remains accessible to Ukraine. In other visuals shared by the Wagner fighters on telegram, the only bridge connecting the city accessible to UA forces was destroyed by the Wagner mercenaries fighters. While the PMC hasn't officially declared that the city which is now completely encircled may not have fallen, the capture of the strategic Bakhmut will give Russian fighters the upper hand to press into the Slovyansk and Kramatorsk in the Ukrainian-held portions of the Donbas area. 

Only bridge in Bakhmut seen destroyed. Credit; Telegram

Russia's state-affiliated TASS, meanwhile, reported that the Ukrainian commander, last night, issued instructions for the Ukrainian forces to retreat from Artyomovsk or Bakhmut "as soon as possible." Today, on the night of March 2, the unit Madyar’s Birds was given a combat order to immediately leave Bakhmut for another battlefield," the group’s commander, codenamed Madyar, said in a video address posted on his Telegram. Sergey Rakhmanin from the Verkhovna Rada’s national security, defense, and reconnaissance committee cited the "increasingly critical moment for Bakhmut" as he said that the Ukrainian troops will have to "sooner or later" pull out of the region. Ukraine's Army is preparing "for an organized retreat" as the situation in Artyomovsk is now "very risky," he noted.