Prigozhin claims capture of Bakhmut, Tatarsky's murder investigated, Poland sends jets to Kyiv. What happened on the front line on April 3?
Heavy fighting for Bakhmut has been taking place since August 2022. On the Russian side, the troop grouping consists of mercenaries from the Wagner PMC. In mid-March 2023, Prigozhin claimed that his mercenaries “control about 70%” of the city.
In a conversation with The Insider, defense expert Oleksandr Kovalenko explained that Prigozhin’s recent statements about the flag-raising in Bakhmut echoed the claims of RT chief Margarita Simonyan, and were but another PR move.
“Margarita Simonyan claimed that 'Ukraine can be taken over in two or three days’ – an in-depth comprehensive analysis condensed into a single statement. Some time later, the same Margarita Simonyan stated: ‘Well, we have already captured Kyiv, we landed our landing force in Hostomel [airport].’ In her understanding, the landing in Hostomel was, in fact, the same as the capture and control of Kyiv. The same can be said for the actions of Yevgeny Prigozhin, as the city of Bakhmut is 100% not under the control of not only by the Wagner PMC, but also the units of the Russian occupation troops.
The same Bakhmut administration building that Prigozhin spoke of in his video is a hundred meters behind him. He was not on the roof, he was not at the main entrance. He was standing with some kind of flag at night in the distance and talking about how legally Bakhmut is already under the control of the Wagner PMC. Russian [field commanders] – well, I can’t call Prigozhin a military commander, because he doesn’t even have a military education – are beginning to use weird language and some sort of local slang that is very far from reality. So I regard what Prigozhin demonstrated as a PR move. He once again tried to draw attention to the Wagner PMC.”
Kovalenko noted that Bakhmut has long been surrounded according to many Russian “experts,” but if analyzed from a military standpoint, the city cannot be said to be encircled, as logistics routes on the O0506 and O0504 highways are maintained, and logistic support is constantly being provided to Ukrainian forces in the area.
The expert added that Russia has not had much success in moving along the right bank of the Bakhmutka river. An objective for Wagner’s southern troop grouping to move north along the right bank of Bakhmutka, set several weeks ago, to close in with the group in the northern sector (the industrial zone), has not been achieved. Its completion would have cut off the AFU’s access to the right bank of the river, which would have given the Russian occupation units an opportunity to cross the Bakhmutka. But as of today, even this has not been achieved, says Kovalenko, as the right bank is still under Ukrainian control.
In Bakhmut’s northern sector, an attack with 9M79 missiles – used by the Tochka-U operational and tactical missile system – was reported on an industrial area on April 2. The strike impacted Wagner PMC units, significantly affecting their combat efficiency in moving from the north to the south.
In speaking of Bakhmut, Prigozhin mentioned Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of the group of Russian forces in Ukraine, saying that he was directly involved in the Bakhmut “meat grinder” operation. Together with the commanders of the Wagner PMC participated in the development of the operation to “liberate” Bakhmut.
“Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin was directly involved in the [operation’s] development and implementation, at the time when he headed the group [of forces]. And that is why I would attribute to him a huge number of decisions that were made,” read a statement by Prigozhin’s company Concord, directly citing the Wagner Group founder.