Enemy Trying With All Their Might To Take Bakhmut Under Control By May 9, Wagner Mercenaries Are Being Assembled - Maliar

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar states that the enemy is trying with all their might to take Bakhmut (Donetsk Region) under control by May 9, the Russians are pulling in the Wagner mercenaries from other directions, but Ukrainian fighters are not allowing the enemy to break through the defenses. Maliar reported this in her Telegram channel, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"The enemy is trying with all their might to take Bakhmut under control by May 9. To accomplish this task, they are withdrawing Wagner troops from other directions and replacing by them the paratrooper assault units currently fighting in the Bakhmut direction," she said.

Maliar emphasized that Ukrainian fighters do not allow the enemy to break through the defense.

In addition, she reported that the ammunition storage sites of the Wagner mercenaries were destroyed by Ukrainian artillery fire.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the owner of the Russian private military company Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin said on May 5 that the Wagner mercenaries will withdraw from Bakhmut on May 10 due to a lack of ammunition, and the PMC will transfer its positions to the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor state of Russia.

On May 1, the commander of the Eastern Group of Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that the Defense Forces counterattacked in some areas of Bakhmut and forced the Russian occupiers to leave some positions.

Also, on May 1, the official representative of the U.S. Department of State, John Kirby, said that since the beginning of the year, Russia has lost 100,000 people killed and wounded in the Bakhmut area.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said that Ukraine will not give up the defense of Bakhmut, as the capture of this city will open the way for Russian invaders to Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.