Russian mercenary group Wagner has taken control of a village near the key city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast region, its founder has claimed.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops had taken the village of Krasna Hora on the northern edge of embattled Bakhmut, which has seen intense fighting in recent months.
The claims could not immediately be independently verified.
In an audio message published by his press service on the messaging app Telegram, Prigozhin said: "Today the settlement of Krasna Hora was taken by the assault troops of the Wagner private military company".
Kyiv’s top military commander, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on Saturday that Ukraine continues to hold Bakhmut, trying to "stabilise" the frontline around it.
Prigozhin said in an interview published on Friday that his forces must capture Bakhmut to proceed with their campaign but faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian defenders.
He also said that it could take two years for Moscow to control the whole of two eastern Ukrainian regions whose capture it has stated as a key goal of the war.
