Founder of Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin June 21 declared on the successes of the offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces in the south. According to the businessman, the Ukrainian army took control of several settlements and “the Russian army lost huge chunks of territory.” Prigozhin also said that the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would have been in the village of Sadovoye near Tokmak (25 km from the front line), moving towards the Molochny Liman and began to try to force the Dnieper. The Russian Defense Ministry has not officially commented on this information. Russian media learned how military correspondents and bloggers assess the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions and what they think about the statement of the leader of the “Wagnerites”.
War correspondent Alexander Kots, in a conversation with Russian media, said that the information expressed by Prigozhin is not true.
“I don’t know why Yevgeny Viktorovich makes such statements. They are really heading towards Molochny Liman, if we look at the map, from Orekhovo towards Rabotin, where the fighting is going on right now, it is exactly in the direction of Molochny Liman, but Molochny Liman is located on the Sea of Azov south of Melitopol, and it is clear that the enemy must go there and go. But if you pull along the ruler, yes, it’s in the direction of the Molochny estuary,” he said.
According to Kots, in general, “there is no forcing of the Dnieper, Pyatikhatki passes from hand to hand all the time, the crop is not taken by the enemy, naturally there is no enemy near Tokmok”.
“The opinion was expressed that it was Evgeny Viktorovich who was trolling (the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine) Anna Malyar with his statements that everything was going according to plan. But I don’t know,” he added.
War correspondent Yuri Kotenok told Russian media that he will not confirm or deny the words of the PMC founder “Wagner”, because there are discrepancies: Prigozhin gives information, and the Ministry of Defense – “somewhat different” .
“I know that violent clashes are taking place in the areas of these settlements, and in fact the same Pyatikhatki passes from hand to hand. The enemy presses and introduces new reserves into the battle. These columns, assault units at the line of deployment, are destroyed by our soldiers directly in contact with the combat, they are covered by artillery, but the enemy is constantly pressing, the initiative is on his side. I want to emphasize that the situation is difficult, despite the huge losses of the enemy, we also have losses – this is a war, ”explained the military commander.
With this in mind, Kotenok believes, there is no need to refute or confirm Prigozhin’s statements, “we must say that hard combat work is underway, the situation is very difficult.” “This is confirmed by my sources on the contact line,” he said.
The military commissar added that “the enemy did not achieve its objectives in the so-called counter-offensive”, due to the staged organized defense of the Russian troops.
“Nevertheless, in a number of areas these attempts are ferocious and are supported by the heavy use of artillery, missile weapons, etc. by the enemy. , we are fighting back, while the situation looks like this, ”concluded the interlocutor of Russian media.
Libkos/AP
The author and creator of the military telegram channel Rybar Mikhail Zvinchuk, in a conversation with Russian media, expressed the opinion that in the context of the conflict between Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense, the statement of the founder of Wagner should be considered “as an attempt to score political points or provoke the Ukrainian Armed Forces into reckless actions.”
“Because while Prigozhin was on the front line, at the front, he naturally had first-hand information, and he was the one who was listened to, because he was constantly on the front line. At this stage, Prigozhin is engaged in restoring the combat capability of Wagner PMC units, as well as planning the return of the PMC to the area of special military operations and gaining certain political points,” he said. -he explains.
Zvinchuk noted that, according to the sources of military correspondent Alexander Sladkov, Prigozhin’s information about specific settlements is incorrect. The creator of “Rybar” suggested that with such statements the leader of the “Wagnerites” is most likely trying to “cause some sort of controlled confusion and, first of all, to mislead the enemy.” At the same time, Zvinchuk is not sure that it will succeed, “because the enemy has enough technical reconnaissance equipment.”
“Pyatikhatki are in the gray zone, since yesterday the western part of the settlement was controlled by the enemy, we were on the eastern outskirts. During the day, the settlement changes hands up to three or four times. It is located on a plain, our troops are located on nearby heights, from where they work on enemy assault groups,” the source told Russian media.
Valentin Sprinchak / TASS
He added that the Ukrainian armed forces during their breakthrough along the Vremevsky ledge could not occupy the village of Urozhaynoye. Near Makarovka, like the village of Pyatikhatki, is in the gray zone, since it is located on a plain.
“There is no threat to Harvest. There are still several kilometers from Rabotin to the line of contact. If you look strictly north from Rabotin to Novodanilovka, Russian units control Shirokaya Ravine, there are approximately forward units. As for Tokmok, this is basically not true. If we talk about the possible crossing of the Dnieper and the occupation of Gola Pristan, which Prigozhin spoke about yesterday, then in the Golopristansky district, after the destruction of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, 13 or 14 small boats and inflatables boats were sunk, on which sabotage and reconnaissance groups moved. None of them went to the Hola Pristan itself,” Zvinchuk added.
He noted that Ukrainian troops were in the gray zone “on the islands and in the semi-flooded area under the Antonovsky Bridge”, but that the Russian army was carrying out reconnaissance, constantly pointing out enemy activity and working on it. Therefore, there is no threat to the Naked Pristan, believes the author of Rybar.
Alexei Konovalov / TASS
According to him, attempts to force the Kakhovka shallow reservoir should be expected, because before the construction of the reservoir in 1956, an old road with a bridge crossed the floodplains of Nikopol.
“Now, after being shallow, it has become visible, another three or four days, and it will dry out. It is in a dilapidated state, but it is neither silt nor earth, it is possible to build there a passage to the other side along the shortest route from Nikopol to Energodar.The route is controlled by our armed forces, they know that the enemy can try to cross the shallow reservoir and, in fact, knock out a regular reserve. But this danger persists,” Zvinchuk told Russian media.
Also, according to him, the danger of a possible forcing of the Dnieper to the northeast of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station remains. “Because there was no erosion as such, the Dnieper became shallow there, but due to the nature of the soil it will be quite problematic to form there, you have to wait until everything dries up,” summed up the founder of Rybar.
Military correspondent Alexander Sladkov, in his Telegram channel, called Prigozhin’s statements “serious”, noting that “their meaning lies in the truth hidden from the people about the surrender of large areas of our territories to the enemy”.
He added that he would not take the liberty of assessing the situation.
“I just took and threw questions in the directions indicated in the statement. The fighters respond, precisely in those territories, the surrender of which is in question,” Sladkov explained.
In particular, to the question “Pyatykhatki follows the enemy, do they go further or not?” one of the military correspondent’s sources replied, “No, they were burned, many are taken prisoner.”
Another interlocutor of Sladkov, participating in the hostilities in the Orekhovsky direction, to the question “Is it true that the Ukrainian armed forces are in Rabotino and Sadovoe above Tokmak?” called this information a “lie”. Another source from the military correspondent responded to the same question in these terms: “I don’t understand anything… Maybe they are going to surrender? Well, where do they vacation there and is there anyone from Tokmak in the Armed Forces of Ukraine? Grouped together to make access cheaper?
One of the fighters located in the south-Donetsk direction, in response to Sladkov’s question: “What is it in Harvest, are they (APU) breaking through more or not”? assured that “there is silence on the airwaves, in the fields too”.
Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation / TASS
Another source from the military correspondent wrote: “Well (lie, lie) creatures and gossips. It’s okay, wait. Yes, it’s hard, it’s hard. Well, that’s all the lyrics, so to speak, (nothing) there, in that place, nothing has changed yet. Well, even the movement of issuing BC (ammunition – editor’s note) is going, it seems, of course, not as we would like. Well, the military, it seems, gave something, we normally come back there. They give us a little – we snap. The process goes like this. Not so fast, of course, but that’s okay.
Sladkov noted that he did not understand the point of providing Ukrainian channels with such statements made by Prigozhin, since “the information is, to say the least, contradictory.”
“What is the point of bringing it to the people? In fact, the fighting continues. No one is saying that victory is already in our pocket. Indeed, help and lack of staff on the front-end will not interfere. But one cannot talk about the successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this summer campaign. Our men are fighting there at the front, they don’t spare themselves, why should they be applied like that? », – the military commander is puzzled.
His colleague Dmitry Kulko also contacted familiar fighters who hold lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia directions.
“I report. In Golaya Pristan, where the 80th Arctic Brigade is stationed, the enemy did not even try to send the DRG today. The city is entirely under our control. In Tokmak, which is under the shield of the echeloned defense and the heroic fighters of the 42nd Division, only the sounds of the exits of our artillery can be heard. The town, like the nearest village of Sadovoye, was not attacked by the assault groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – it is far from (the line of contact)”, writing he is in his telegram channel.
At the same time, the military commissar noted that the most difficult battles were fought in the Pyatikhatki region, the village changed hands several times.
“In any case, a flexible line of defense was invented in order to concentrate and use forces in the most practical way. And advancing the enemy several hundred meters does not guarantee consolidation. The previous weeks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces counter-offensive clearly showed this,” Kulko summed up.
At the time of publication of the material, the Ministry of Defense did not respond to Russian media’s request regarding the accuracy of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s information.
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