Wagner Group financier hoists Russian flag on long-destroyed city hall building in Bakhmut – Eastern grouping of Armed Forces

Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman for the Eastern grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), hoisted the Russian flag on the building of the city administration of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, which has long been destroyed amid the fighting. 

Source: Cherevatyi on national television

Quote from Cherevatyi: "Prigozhin is most likely going to Bakhmut because it is not safe for him in St Petersburg. There are restaurants exploding there, you see…[a reference to the recent death of a Russian "war correspondent" in an explosion in a cafe – ed.] And he is hoisting flags on buildings that have long since physically ceased to exist. This building, which he calls the city administration, has been totally destroyed."

Details: Cherevatyi emphasised that Bakhmut remains the main target of attacks by the Russians, primarily Wagner Group mercenaries.

In the past 24 hours alone, there have been 32 Russian attacks and 26 skirmishes both in Bakhmut itself and on the outskirts of the city.

According to Cherevatyi, the occupiers shelled the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 238 times with both tubed and rocket artillery.

At the same time, 91 occupiers were killed, 119 were injured, a Russian tank and a Grad multiple-launch missile system were hit, and 3 ammunition storage points were destroyed.

Background: 

• On 3 April, Prigozhin said that Russian forces had "legally captured" Bakhmut. At the same time, he admitted that Ukrainian troops remain in the western part of the city.
• In their recent report, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Wagner Group fighters have seized the building of the Bakhmut administration, and Russian forces have made further advances in central Bakhmut.
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes that in the battle for Bakhmut, the Russian forces are trying to compensate for the low quality of equipment and command with quantity.

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