Zainab
Prigozhin is shown visiting what he says are Wagner positions in the city and telling his fighters to hand them over to Russian troops.
Leave them soap, but take away your toothbrushes, he says.
A Wagner withdrawal could open a new phase of the monthslong struggle for Bakhmut, testing whether the Russian Army can hold the hardwon ground against Ukrainian forces that have advanced on the citys outskirts and are preparing to launch a broader counteroffensive.
Days after declaring victory in Bakhmut, the Wagner private military company said Thursday that it was turning the Ukrainian city over to the Russian Army, which must now try to hold on to it without the help of the brutal mercenary force on which it has grown dependent.
Wagners leader, Yevgeny V.
Prigozhin, suggested that Russias regular soldiers can expect no more help from the group at least, not in Bakhmut.