The former governor of Luhansk county, Serhij Hajdaj, has said in a TV interview with the channel News24 Ukraine that Wagner soldiers are back at the front line in Ukraine. Hajdaj claims that Wagner personnel are operating in Luhansk Oblast across different sectors of the frontline, but could not specify the number or the organization under which they operate. Think it has little effect According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Wagner-affiliated source has claimed that around 500 Wagner personnel, including those who refused to take part in the June 24 Wagner uprising, have joined a new organization. It will be organized by the former managers of the personnel department in Wagner. The person adds that these are likely to return to Ukraine to fight on the southern flank of Bakhmut. After Wagner commander Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed rebellion against Putin and the defense leadership, his soldiers pulled out of Ukraine. In August, Prigozhin died when his private plane crashed outside Moscow. Map to show which areas of Ukraine Russia controls. The map shows the situation on 22 September. Photo: British intelligence That the Wagner soldiers are now back in Ukraine has not yet been confirmed by independent sources. In any case, ISW believes that a disjointed grouping of the soldiers is likely to have little impact on the combat capabilities of the Russians. They specify that the troops will probably not produce the same effect that Wagner would have had if they were still an integrated organization under the leadership of Prigozhin. Claims Ukrainian progress On Saturday there were also reports that Ukraine has broken through Russian defense lines in the south of Ukraine. To the American media, the leader of Ukraine’s counter-offensive claims that Ukraine is making progress in the Zaporizhzhya area, which has been controlled by Russian forces for a long time. Ukraine launched its long-planned, grand counter-offensive early this summer, but progress has been slower than expected. – On the left flank, near the village of Verbove, we now have a breakthrough and continue to advance, General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi recently told CNN. Satellite images from September 22 indicate continued Ukrainian progress in deploying more heavy equipment at Russia’s defense lines, according to ISW. – Ukrainian forces have brought heavy equipment closer to Verbove (village in Zaporizhzhya) for the past 96 hours in a manner consistent with Tarnavskyi’s statement, ISW writes. Insufficient forces They nevertheless emphasize that progress towards a Ukrainian breakthrough is still unclear, and that they have not overcome all the Russian defensive positions at Verbove. – Russian forces probably still control parts of the long trench line with Russian fighting positions between Robotyne (10 km south of Orikhiv) and Verbove, especially near the tactical high ground in the south, ISW writes in their report from Saturday. They add that Russia has several field fortresses in Verbove, but that it is unclear to what extent these positions are manned. ISW considers that the Russian military does not have sufficient forces deployed at this sector of the front, and that Ukraine should therefore be able to operate more quickly through. Intermediate goal reached In Bakhmut, further east in the country, fierce fighting is also taking place, a Ukrainian military source tells Reuters. The person points out that weapons supplied by the West are the reason they have now caused “significant stress” in the area. The lieutenant general of the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces have achieved their goal of “pinning down” Russian forces in Bakhmut, precisely to prevent their transfer to other areas further south in the country.
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Claims Wagner soldiers are back at the front line in Ukraine – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
