Wagner founder Prigozhin claims Russian forces have taken Ukraine village

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia’s Wagner Group, said on Sunday the mercenary force had taken the village of Krasna Hora, on the northern edge of the embattled city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

In an audio message published by his press service on the messenging app Telegram, Prigozhin said: “Today the settlement of Krasna Hora was taken by the assault troops of the Wagner private military company.” 

Prigozhin also published a short video, apparently showing Wagner fighters at the entrance sign to Krasna Hora, which had a pre-war population of 600.

Reuters could not independently verify that the village had been taken.

The Wagner Group, a once secretive mercenary force that fought for Moscow’s allies in Africa and the Middle East, has for months spearheaded the assault on Bakhmut, making small but steady gains in a battle that has raged since last summer.

A 53-year-old woman was killed on Sunday morning when Russian forces shelled an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, the regional governor said.

Serhiy Lysak, the head of Dnipropetrovbsk regional administration, said that an 87-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, which he described as an artillery strike.

Nikopol sits across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since shortly after they invaded Ukraine on February 24.

British arms and military vehicles could be manufactured in Ukraine under licence, easing the country’s dependence on supplies of arms from Western allies, the Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Telegraph said British defence industry executives had travelled to Kyiv to discuss plans to set up joint ventures to manufacture weapons and vehicles locally.

Manufacturers from other European countries were also in discussions with Ukraine, it said, citing one executive saying there was a race to put Britain “at the front of the queue”.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to London and Paris on Wednesday to appeal for more Western arms to repel the Russian invasion, including modern fighter jets and heavy long-range weapons.

‘Nothing is off the table’

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told him that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to supplying Ukraine with jets to fight Russia, after he announced a plan to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly Nato-standard fighter jets.

Western countries, however, have so far stopped short of providing jets or weapons that can strike deep inside Russia.

In response, news agency Tass cited Russia’s embassy in Britain as warning that any delivery of British fighter jets to Ukraine would have serious military and political ramifications.

Any joint venture between a defence manufacturer and Ukraine would likely need British government sign-off, and such a move would further antagonise Moscow, the Telegraph said.

Sunak’s press office at No 10 Downing Street declined to comment on the report. The ministry of defence also declined to comment.

Reuters