Local media reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, a Russian private mercenary company set to withdraw from the battleground Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, said that "the Wagner Group has fully carried out its mission in Bakhmut."

On the 7th (local time), according to Russian media RBC and Tass News Agency, Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel: "The main purpose of the operation in the Bakhmut region is not to capture the city, but to crush the Ukrainian army and buy time for the Russian army to restore its combat capabilities."

"Currently, the Russian army controls 95% of the Bakhmut area, and the remaining 5% has no effect on the conduct of the special military operation."

"No one communicated with him on the issue of ammunition shortages," he said, noting that he would "protect the mercenaries of the Wagner Group for the next operation for Russian interests."

Earlier, on the 5th, Prigozhin announced that it was withdrawing from Bakhmut on the 10th, citing a lack of ammunition support from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

He also asked the Russian Ministry of Defense to allow their combat mission to be handed over by the Ahmat special forces of the Chechen Autonomous Republic.

In response, the head of the government of the Chechen Autonomous Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on 6 August, asking him to order Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others to deploy Ahmat special forces to Bakhmut, Ukraine, on behalf of the mercenaries of the Wagner Group.

Kadyrov was known to be a strong supporter of Putin, and when Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, he sent troops to the battlefield to support Russian forces.

(Photo = TAS, Yonhap News)