The Cynic
Evgeny Prigozhin: “The operation to capture Bakhmut lasted 224 days – the Bakhmut meat grinder. It began on October 8, 2022 in order to give the battered Russian army an opportunity to recover. There were only Wagner PMCs here; as Konashenkov said, there were no airborne troops and anyone else who could help us. We helped ourselves.”
Evgeny Prigozhin: “From the 25th, we will withdraw our units for rest and retraining. We have fought for 427 days, since March 19, when the Motherland needed our help. We completely took the whole city from house to house so that no one could pedantically reproach us that at least some piece was not taken. Until May 25, we will completely inspect it, create defense lines, and hand it over to the military so that they can continue to work, and we ourselves will go to field camps. When our country, our people, and our families need us again, we will return and protect our people if necessary.”
The situation near Bakhmut is quite “vicious.” But Prigozhin continues to act according to the old plan, which we revealed to you:
… Prigozhin’s goal is to take Bakhmut and become completely untouchable due to this status. And then transfer the captured Bakhmut under the Moscow Region so that they would already be defeated and begin to retreat.
Finally, let’s sum up the “Bakhmut fork.”
“Wagner” ends (at the moment) its military existence in the framework of the war with Ukraine. The reason for this is the simplest – people ran out.
At the same time, Prigozhin was wrapped with a “ribbon” in a gesture of drawing him into a noose. In this case, not the “Wagnerites” themselves will be taken into the loop (in the operational environment), but the Russians, who will replace Prigozhin’s mercenaries.
It is still impossible to say for sure, but it looks like Prigozhin was given the opportunity to “buy” a ticket to the higher system of the Russian Federation by the same Bakhmut.
Another important aspect – the attempt to take Bakhmut obviously did not continue. The reason why the Kremlin was so concentrated on this particular sector of the front is still not clear.
Prigozhin really “diverted attention” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from adjacent sectors of the front. But at the same time, the Russian occupiers did not advance anywhere during this time. 5 is the final point, from which you can only retreat.
Now, the most interesting thing will happen with the “Bakhmut bag,” including in the context of that very counter-offensive.
The main follower of the “military-prison order” rushes (figuratively) to the Kremlin to continue his (more active) political war.
And while Bakhmut is not taken.
