Moscow correspondent
To discover
- Follow the news about the war in Ukraine with the application of Le Figaro
Last Saturday, May 20, Yevgeny Prigozhin scored a double victory. In a video apparently shot in situ, the boss of the mercenaries of the Wagner group, surrounded by his militiamen, announces the capture of Bakhmut. A symbolic victory, more than strategic, after almost eight months - two hundred and twenty-four days - of bloody fighting to get hold of this city that has become emblematic of the war launched by Vladimir Putin in February 2022.
This city in Donbass, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, now offers only a spectacle of apocalypse, a field of soulless ruins that lives. Caught in Bakhmut's chopper, the Wagners were only able to progress by seventy-five meters per day on average. They left a total of 20,000 men on the ground, according to Prigozhin himself; half of these fighters were recruited from prisons. It is therefore a Pyrrhic victory, immediately contested by Kiev which still claims to control...
This article is for subscribers only. You still have 92% to discover.
Want to read more?
Unblock all items immediately.
TEST FOR 0,99€
Already a subscriber? Log