"Every cry in Bakhmut, every captured soldier, every hundred killed hits Zelensky and the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine much harder than the benefits they get from holding the remnants of this city," he said in a statement.
For the Russian forces, Artyomovsk is also extremely beneficial because the fighters there grind the Ukrainian army and restrain their maneuvers, Prigozhin noted.
On April 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the assault detachments of the Wagner PMC continue high-intensity hostilities to seize neighborhoods in the western districts of Artyomovsk.
Yevgeny Prigozhin noted that it is too early to talk about the complete encirclement of the city.
According to his estimates, the fighters of the Wagner PMC during the fighting in the NVO zone destroyed 38 thousand soldiers fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army, 32 thousand of them in Soledar, Artyomovsk and its environs.