The head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner said Thursday that his fighters have begun withdrawing from Bakhmut as they hand control of the eastern city to Russia’s military.
The announcement comes days after Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his troops had captured the city following a grueling nine-month battle. Prigozhin said in a video published on Telegram that the handover will be completed by June 1.
Ukrainian officials have insisted pockets of resistance remain in Bakhmut, and Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces still have a foothold in southwestern outskirts.
The Russian defense ministry did not immediately comment on the handover from Wagner.
Bakhmut delivered a badly needed win for Russia as its invasion of Ukraine has lost momentum and Russian troops brace for a Ukrainian counteroffensive using weapons from Western allies.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Thursday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was already underway, and that it would not be “a single event that will begin at a specific hour of a specific day.”
“These are dozens of different actions to destroy the Russian occupation forces in different directions, which have already been taking place yesterday, are taking place today and will continue tomorrow,” Podolyak said on Twitter.
Developments:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy surprised Johns Hopkins University graduates Thursday by delivering their commencement address, urging them to make the most of their time. “Every person eventually realizes that time is the most valuable resource on the planet − not oil, or uranium, not lithium or anything else, but time,” he said.
- In his nightly address Wednesday, Zelenskyy said delivery of F-16 fighter jets to his country will be “one of the strongest signals from the world that Russia will only lose.” President Joe Biden agreed last week to allow allies to send fighter jets to Ukraine and to help train Ukrainian pilots on the aircraft.
- A reservoir crucial to Ukraine’s drinking water and power supply is seeing dangerously high water levels because of damage to a Russian-occupied dam that has gone unrepaired for months.
- Ukraine successfully defended against 36 Russian drones launched overnight at multiple cities, including Kyiv, Zelenskyy said in a statement.
- A record number of people − 606,000 − moved to Britain in 2022. This number is up from just under 500,000 in 2021 amid increased immigration from Ukraine and Hong Kong.
Moscow signs deal on deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus
Russia and Belarus signed a deal Thursday on deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, according to statements from both countries’ defense ministries. The agreement allows Russia to store the weapons on its ally’s territory while retaining control of them.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia “is not giving nuclear weapons to Belarus” and that control over their use and deployment remains in Moscow’s hands.
Officials didn’t immediately release additional information about when the weapons would be deployed. But Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said the construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons would be completed in Belarus by July 1.
Contributing: The Associated Press