Ukraine says it has routed Russian brigade, Kremlin admits campaign 'very difficult'

KYIV - A Ukrainian unit on Wednesday (May 10) said it had routed a Russian brigade near the stronghold of Bakhmut in an incident underlining the scale of the task facing the Kremlin as it carries out what it calls a “very difficult” military operation.

The unit’s claim appeared to back up comments by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private army, who on Tuesday said the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated by up to 2km as the result of counter-attacks. He did not give details.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the situation on the ground. Wagner units have led a months-long Russian assault on the eastern city, but Ukrainian forces say the offensive is stalling.

“The special military operation continues. This is a very difficult operation, and, of course, certain goals have been achieved in a year,” Tass new agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling a Bosnian Serb television channel.

“We managed to beat up the Ukrainian military machine quite a bit,” said Peskov, citing Russian missile strikes in Ukraine. “This work will continue”.

His comments did not address claims that Russia’s 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade had abandoned positions on the south-western outskirts of Bakhmut.

A Russian brigade is typically formed of several thousand troops. Bakhmut is the primary target of Moscow’s huge winter offensive and scene of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar, writing on Telegram, said pro-Kyiv units had not lost a single position in Bakhmut on Wednesday.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has repeatedly accused Moscow’s regular armed forces of failing to adequately support his men, said on Tuesday the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions.

“Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away 3 sq km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men,” he said.

Situation remains difficult

In a statement, Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said: “It’s official. Prigozhin’s report about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorised Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the ‘500 corpses’ of Russians left behind is true.”

Ukraine’s eastern military command said the Russian brigade had been heavily damaged, although it said Russia was still trying to capture the rest of the city.

“Unfortunately they have not destroyed the whole (Russian) brigade yet,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for the eastern military command, said in televised comments.

“The situation (in Bakhmut) remains difficult because for the enemy, despite all the white noise Prigozhin is trying to create, it (Bakhmut) is (still) the main direction of attack,” he said.

Early on Wednesday, the Third Separate Assault Brigade, which was formed last year from the nationalist Azov Battalion, reposted a video of one of Azov’s founders, Andriy Biletsky, who said his forces had “defeated” the Russian brigade.

“The attacks were implemented within a territory 3km wide and 2.6km deep, and this entire territory is completely liberated from the Russian occupying forces,” he said.

Since last week, Prigozhin has repeatedly threatened to pull Wagner out of Bakhmut unless Russia’s regular armed forces send more ammunition. In his latest remarks on Wednesday, he said his troops were receiving only 10 per cent of the shells they needed.

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As well as clashing repeatedly with Russia’s defence ministry, he has also expressed concerns about a long-promised Ukrainian counter-offensive to recapture some of the territory that Russia occupied after the 2022 invasion.

In his evening video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named the Third Brigade and noted its report “about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorised Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut”.

In Brussels, Nato’s top military official said the war would increasingly be a battle between large numbers of poorly trained Russian troops with outdated equipment and a smaller Ukrainian force with better Western weapons and training.

Admiral Rob Bauer, a Dutch military officer who is chair of Nato’s military committee, noted Russia was now deploying significant numbers of T-54 tanks - an old model designed in the years after World War Two.

In Washington, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said he had authorised the first transfer of forfeited Russian assets for use in Ukraine.

In Warsaw, Poland summoned Russia’s ambassador over an incident involving a Russian fighter jet and a Polish border guard aircraft over the Black Sea, a Polish foreign ministry spokesman said.