Wagner Chief Claims Control of Bakhmut—Ukraine Calls BS

The head of Russia’s mercenary army in Ukraine, the Wagner Group, claimed to have seized total control of the long-besieged city of Bakhmut on Saturday.

“The operation to capture Bakhmut lasted 224 days,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group leader, said in a video posted to Telegram, according to CNN. In the video, Prigozhin stands in full military gear, flanked by soldiers holding Russian and Wagner Group flags and with bombed-out buildings looming in the background.

Ukrainian officials immediately called bullshit—though one conceded the situation is dire.

Read more at The Daily Beast.