Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited a “command post” on the battlefront in eastern Ukraine, his ministry announced Saturday, as the battle for the city of Bakhmut rages.
“Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu inspected one of the units of the ‘East’ group in the south of Donetsk during its activities in the area of the special military operation,” the Defense Ministry statement said. Russian.
Shoigu received the report from the group’s commander-in-chief Rustam Muradov and other soldiers on the current situation and the army’s actions in the area under their responsibility, the statement added.
The Ministry released a video showing Shoigu riding in a helicopter, without a helmet or bulletproof vest, and talking to a soldier in front of damaged buildings, in the custody of another soldier.
In this video, we also see the minister handing out medals to Russian soldiers. The visit takes place while the fierce fight for control of Bakhmut continues, in the Donetsk region, a city of little strategic value, but which has become a symbol because the two sides have been fighting for months.
On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is in charge of the Wagner paramilitary group and who is on the front line in the battle for Bakhmut, said the city was “practically surrounded.”
Prigozhin strongly criticized the command of the Russian regular forces on several occasions, accusing them of not supporting Wagner’s fighters sufficiently.
At the end of December, Sergei Shoigu made two such visits to the “special operations” area in Ukraine.
Source: TSF
