07 March 2023 , 13:23
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Brutal Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has sent a truckload of champagne to Ukrainian women to mark International Women’s Day.
The Kremlin-linked war brute was seen in a video mockingly signing one case before it was loaded onto a lorry in footage released by his personal press service on the Telegram messaging app.
The post boasts that Bakhmut is on the brink of being seized by Russian forces and that Ukrainian hopes of retaking the area and wine factory are increasingly slim.
Wagner captured the Bakhmut Champagne Winery and Siniat enterprise, in the eastern part of the city, in December.
Ahead of International Women's Day tomorrow, the caption of the video says that the "goodwill gesture" will mean Ukranian women are not "without a gift for the holiday".
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The Wagner founder has sent a truckload of champagne to Ukrainian womenThe post read: "Yevgeny Prigozhin sent a truckload of champagne from a sparkling wine factory located near Bakhmut for Ukrainian women on March 8.
"Earlier, Ukrainian servicemen have repeatedly said that after they squeeze out the Wagner Group from Bakhmut, they will drink champagne from a local factory for a victory.
"But something went wrong, the Orchestra is moving forward, and the ArtWinery plant is getting farther and farther from the Ukrainian military, so Yevgeny Prigozhin made a goodwill gesture and did not leave Ukrainian women without a gift for the holiday."
Yevgeny Prigozhin is filmed signing a case of sparkling wine with a red marker (Telegram)Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has committed to defending Bakhmut and said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has now claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut.
Footage circulating on social media shows an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war being shot and executed by Russian troops.
Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, described the video as "horrific" and said that it was more proof the war was "genocidal".
Yevgeny Prigozhin is the chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner (@concordgroup_official /AFP via)A NATO official has told CNN that Russia has lost around five soldiers for every Ukrainian soldier killed in the battle for Bakhmut.
They also said Ukraine is still suffering significant losses defending the city.
The UK's Ministry of Defence's latest intelligence report says that Ukraine's defence of the eastern city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region "continues to degrade forces on both sides".
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This month, a Russian strike destroyed a bridge over the only paved supply road into Bakhmut and is "likely hampering Ukrainian resupply efforts", the ministry said.