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The leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner said on Sunday that his troops had taken a village in eastern Ukraine a few kilometers from the key town of Bakhmut which Moscow has been trying to capture for months.
“Today Wagner’s assault units took the town of Krasna Hora,” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a statement.
AFP was unable to independently confirm these claims.
Pundits have debated the strategic importance of Bakhmut, but the city has turned into a key political and symbolic prize as the battle dragged on.
The rivalry between the paramilitary group Wagner and the Russian military surfaced during the fight for Bakhmut – although the Kremlin denies any rift.
On January 11, Prigozhin claimed that his fighters had taken control of the town of Soledar, a salt mining town with a pre-war population of around 10,000 near Bakhmut.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not say until two days later that forces from Moscow had control of the city.
“After the capture of Soledar and the hype that there were other (soldiers) besides Wagner at Soledar, of course the guys were very frustrated,” Prigozhin said Sunday.
“Within a radius of 50 kilometers (31 miles), more or less, only Wagner’s fighters remain, and they will take Bakhmut,” he added.
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