Wagner forces will leave embattled Bakhmut on May 10, leader says
Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would leave the destroyed city of Bakhmut on May 10, announcing the withdrawal in a sudden statement that followed a dramatic video slamming Russia’s top defense officials.
“I declare on behalf of the Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that on 10 May 2023, we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw the remains of Wagner to logistics camps to lick our wounds,” Prigozhin said in the statement translated by Reuters.
“I’m pulling Wagner units out of Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they’re doomed to perish senselessly.”
Wagner has largely led the fighting in Bakhmut, the site of the war’s longest and most violent battle, but has complained of lack of support and ammunition from Moscow. In early April, Prigozhin claimed his forces controlled more than 80% of the eastern city.
Ukraine has refused to relinquish the entirely ruined city, which is often referred to as a “meat grinder,” because its officials say that Russian control over it would allow Russian forces much easier access to the rest of eastern Ukraine.
— Natasha Turak
Bill Clinton says he believed in 2011 that Putin invading Ukraine was ‘just a matter of time’
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting in New York, September 19, 2022.
David Dee Delgado | Reuters
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said he foreshadowed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine back in 2011, saying that he believed it was “just a matter of time,” according to a feature published by the Financial Times.
“Bill Clinton said he realised in 2011 it was ‘just a matter of time’ before Vladimir Putin would move on Ukraine after a chilling discussion with Russia’s president in Davos, Switzerland,” the FT piece read.
“During that encounter, Clinton said, Putin rejected a…
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