Moscow (EFE)
“Today Wagner’s assault units have taken the town of Krásnaya Gorá,” the private military company reported on its Telegram channel, where you can see a video of several mercenaries posing next to a sign with the name of that town.
Krásnaya Gorá, which is about ten kilometers from Bakhmut, lies between Soledar, taken last month by the Wagners, and that Ukrainian stronghold.
Wagner, who has been trying to assault Bakhmut since mid-2022, also denied today that Russia has deployed regular forces in the area and that its men have been transferred to the southern front.
«There is no special unit (…). Within a radius of about 50 kilometers there are only Wagner’s soldiers, who will end up conquering Bakhmut,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the group.
In addition, he denied having already stormed Vuhledar, another major Ukrainian city further south of Donetsk, in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops.
«Where they are not, well they are not. We are neither in the north nor in the south,” he added.
Russian troops have intensified in recent days both their ground offensive and aerial bombardments and artillery attacks against Ukrainian positions in Donbas and the neighboring Kharkiv region.
According to various Ukrainian and Western sources, these would be the first steps in the major offensive ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to gain control of the four annexed regions in September, especially Donetsk.
In this regard, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksy Danilov, commented last night that Moscow had already begun the “great offensive”, but that it would be running into “big problems” at the beginning.
“The offensive that they planned is already advancing gradually. But it is not the offensive that they expected, “he assured, in statements to Ukrainian public television.
German to instruct Ukrainian soldiers in handling Leopard tanks
The German army will begin next week at the Munster base (north of the country) the instruction of Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of the Leopard 2 armored combat vehicles, according to information from the magazine “Der Spiegel”.
According to the same outlet, the first soldiers to undergo training have already traveled to Germany and part of them come from the front, near the city of Bachmut,
The German army has planned a quick instruction in which the soldiers learn the fundamentals of the use of the Leopard 2 and the possibilities of combining its action with that of the Marder defense armored vehicles.
Also in Munster Ukrainian soldiers are being instructed in the use of the Marder.
The brief instruction will only convey the essentials. Training in the use of Leopards normally lasts for several years.
According to the plans, the soldiers should return to the front, along with the Leopards, at the end of March.
