Moscow, Mar 15 (Prensa Latina) Russian forces today took control of the Zaliznyanskoye settlement and are expanding the encirclement of Artiomovsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the head of the Wagner military company, Evgueni Prigozhin, said.
‘Wagner assault detachments are expanding the encirclement of Artiomovsk (Bakhmut for Ukrainians), after they liberated the small locality of Zaliznianskoye on Wednesday,’ Prigozhin reported on his Telegram channel.
Artiomovsk is located in the part of the Donetsk People’s Republic controlled by Kiev and is an important transport center for supplying Ukrainian troops in Donbas.
Over this important communications junction fierce battles have been raging since the summer of last year. On March 11, Prigozhin reported that Russian forces were 1.2 km from the administrative center of Artiomovsk, dominating all the surrounding heights.
In the city there are, according to intelligence estimates, between 10,000 and 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers, who are in danger of being encircled by Russian units.
Wagner again. Reading these reports almost makes it sounds like there’s no actual Russian army, just Wagner
by now it has been officially stated that the battle around Bakhmut is by all means a “wagner operation” with the russian army acting as support. So that’s why it seems like it’s only them right now. It’s different in the kupyansk or avdiivka front
Wagner has recent and extensive experience in urban fighting, having fought for example in Benghazi and Palmyra. The russian army lacks that kind of recent experience. So the leadership just decided to outsource the grind into the stubbornly and foolishly held Bakhmut to wagner.
On top of that, being a pmc, Wagner doesn’t have to abide by the same standards of life conservation the national army is expected to adhere to. Which is a plus in urban warfare, where recon by fire is pretty much your only option.
in other words, Wagner is just better suited for the job as they are generally better than the russian army at fighting building by building.
Can some more knowledgeable comrade fill me in on the deal with Wagner? Whenever I’ve brought up Ukraine’s Nazism, Wagner always comes up as an equivalence when talking with liberals.
Wagner is often brought up by liberals to falsely equivocate Russia with Ukraine and with Nazism. I’ve read different things about Wagner, and I’m not sure what the truth is. I just replace Wagner with “Russian special forces”. Wagner unfortunately has some neo-nazis in its ranks and even as one of its leaders, but unlike the Azov battalion, Putin has a much tighter leash on Wagner than Zelenskyy does on Azov. And Wagner doesn’t seem to be nearly as racist or violent or commit as many war crimes as the Azov battalion does.
I swear I read somewhere that “Wagner” wasn’t an actual organization until some group started calling itself that very recently
Was it this Rainer Shea essay?
Or a Scott Ritter interview where Ritter says exactly what you wrote.
https://rainershea.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-psyop-the-incredibly
I think it was the article, thanks 👍
I thought it was just a catchall term for the different mercenary groups
same
Their role seems to rise in size and importancy during the war. Maybe they were just a catchem all term at the beginning but got consolidated and expanded into real military presence they seems to have now?
I remember back when Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, and the characters going on and on about military industrial complex and PMCs. And me thinking there’s a grain of truth to the military industrial complex but the rest is just kind of sci-fi fantasist world building.
I should go through that game again.
in case anyone was wondering why this tiny village is significant: north of it there is a relatively large set of fields with no roads, which offers no cover and isn’t ideal at all to move heavy equipment through.
Ukraine was ammassing forces in that area to strike the at the northern part of the northern salient created by Wagner forces, moving south towards the city in an attempt to either reach Artemovsk and encircle Wagner’s northern tactical group or at least force them to flee.
Zaliznyanskoye offered the hohols a place to ammass forces in preparation for such strike where they would have cover and thus time to prepare.
By securing the settlement, Wagner secured the northern edge of the salient they built. Which means that ukrainian hopes to free the city from the north are gone. This frees up several forces to contribute to what looks like Wagner’s new plan - to strike directly at Chasiv Yar before the Artemovsk garrison manages to retreat (if the cocaine comedian ever allows them to).
Which is also why you see pro-ukr media playing the “lol russia conquered a shed” card to downplay the importance of the development.
Thank you for adding more context!
