Russia Must Take Artyomovsk to Thwart Kiev’s Plan to Block Crimea — PMC Wagner’s Founder

Yevgeny Prigozhin believes that the Ukrainian army might also try to push towards Belgorod, or to strike "towards Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Debaltsevo and Lugansk with the aim to cut the LPR and DPR in halves"

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin believes that Crimea’s blockade is high on the list of the Ukrainian military’s strategic priorities.

Prigozhin, in a video interview uploaded to the Telegram channel of his press service on Thursday, said that the Ukrainian forces, under a certain scenario, might try to push towards Belgorod. The Svatovo-Kremennaya line might become their second target and a third series of strikes would focus on Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name - Bakhmut).

"Their group around Bakhmut is located in Seversk, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka and Chasov Yar. <...> The Ukrainians' main task is to retain these lines and to push further," Prigozhin added.

He stressed that the enemy might try to "hamstring" Russian forces in order to drive a 30-40-kilometer corridor for strikes in a third direction, "towards Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Debaltsevo and Lugansk with the aim to cut the LPR and DPR in halves."

"Then, of course, they may try to build up forces in Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk) for several strikes in the Zaporozhye Region targeting Berdyansk, Melitopol and Mariupol, their end gain being Crimea's land blockade. After that, it is most likely they will try to deal with the Crimean Bridge and to roll back the situation to the borders of 1991," Prigozhin said.

Artyomovsk, located in the Kiev-controlled part of the DPR, is an important transport hub for the delivery of supplies to the Ukrainian group of troops in Donbass. Fierce battles are going on for Artyomovsk. On Wednesday, military-political expert Yan Gagin, an adviser to the acting head of the DPR, said that the city was almost completely sealed off by the Russian army, whose artillery keeps all routes of approach to the city under fire. Earlier, he said that the Russian forces controlled about 70% of Artyomovsk.