www.yahoo.com
A Ukrainian counterattack has the Wagner boss sounding alarms on a counteroffensive in 'full swing,' claiming Zelenskyy played everyone
But Ukraine has reportedly called it a "positional struggle," and Zelenskyy has said Kyiv still needs more time.
International
Wagner boss Prigozhin said on Thursday that Ukraine's "counteroffensive is in full swing."
Ukrainian forces have reported counterattacks near the war-torn city of Bakhmut.
But President Zelenskyy said earlier that Kyiv still needs "more time" before a major assault.
Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Thursday that Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive is in "full swing," rebuffing comments made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just hours earlier about delaying major operations.
On his social media channels, Prigozhin accused Zelenskyy of lying when he said in a media interview that Ukraine needed more time before it could carry out a counteroffensive. "Zelensky is lying," Prigozhin said, according to a CNN translation. "The counteroffensive is in full swing."
Prigozhin's remarks came amid reports of Ukrainian advances at front-line areas in eastern Ukraine, such as in the war-torn city of Bakhmut, where Wagner Group mercenaries have played a key role in brutal and intense fighting for months. Ukrainian forces signaled that they carried out "effective counterattacks" that forced some Russian soldiers to retreat.
"Thanks to our well-thought-out defense in the Bakhmut sector, we are getting results from the effective actions of our units," Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram, according to CNN. "In particular, we are conducting effective counterattacks. In some areas of the front, the enemy was unable to withstand the onslaught of Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to 2 kilometers."
A Ukrainian battalion said this week that it managed to chase Russian soldiers out of parts of Bakhmut, sharing footage that appeared to show soldiers on the run. Aerial footage showed troops running through fields and being hunted down by armored vehicles, while videos taken from the ground showed fighting and bodies.
Kyiv's military officials have cautioned that the offensives mentioned by Prigozhin are nothing more than a "positional struggle" and don't reflect a broader counteroffensive. Some reporters also cast doubt on the claims.
Read here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainian-counterattack-wagner-boss-sounding-213128887.html