The Wagner group has begun to withdraw its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, as explained by its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video published on Thursday. “We are withdrawing the units from Bakhmut. From today at five in the morning, May 25 until June 1, most of the units will be relocated to camps in the rear. We are handing over our positions to the military,” he assured. he.

Prigozhin announced the taking of Bakhmut last Saturday after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war and even then the leader of the mercenaries stated that his fighters would withdraw and regular Russian troops would move in to replace them. Now, he has announced that the withdrawal will begin today, in a video posted on Telegram by his press service in which Prigozhin can be seen dressed in combat gear and standing next to a war-damaged residential block.

In the latest video, Prigozhin, who has repeatedly criticized top Russian defense officials, has also claimed that his forces they would be ready to return to Bakhmut if the regular army could not handle the situation.

Prigozhin has recognized that 10,000 Russian convicts recruited by his group died in the battle for control of Bakhmut. In an interview with a pro-government political scientist, Konstantín Dolgov, he admitted having enlisted some 50,000 men in Russian prisons.

At the time, he acknowledged that the Ministry of Defense had prohibited him from recruiting troops in the prison services. In total, according to the interview published on his Telegram channel, Prigozhin said that he lost in total about 15,000-16,000 men in that city of the Donetsk region.

In addition, another similar number of Wagnerites had to leave the battlefield after suffering serious injuries. The leader of the mercenaries estimated at 50,000-70,000 the deaths on the Ukrainian side, when the US estimated at almost 100,000 Russian losses in the bloody battle.

To claims that Wagner is not qualified to participate in a new offensive after the heavy losses suffered, Prigozhin replied that he can still recruit 10,000 Russian men within a month.

According to human rights sources, it would now be the Russian Ministry of Defense that would be recruiting in prisons to complete new private military companies that are easier to control than Wagner. Russian authorities recognize only 5,937 fallen on the Ukrainian battlefieldalthough independent sources estimate the Russian deaths at more than 22,000 and the Ukrainians speak of some 200,000 casualties, including dead, wounded and mutilated.