Posted at 2022-11-02 20:55 Updated at 2022-11-02 22:17
FRANCE 2ND
Article written by
M. Burgot, E. Delevoye, H. Horoks, D. Padalka, V. Hryshko – France 2
France TV
The Battle of Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine is one of the bloodiest since the war began. Faced with Ukrainian soldiers, the Wagner commando recruited hundreds of men from Russian prisons and sacrificed them by sending them into enemy positions.
In Bakhmout (Ukraine) the cannons banged incessantly. Confronting the Ukrainian forces are Wagner’s Mercenaries, a Russian militia that uses prisoners to fight. The paramilitaries are constantly attacking. The man leading the offensive from the Russian side, the head of the Wagner militia, is Yevgueni Prigozhin. He recruits prisoners who are paid to fight at Bakhmout. “They use them like cannon fodder. They don’t stay alive for long, two months at most,” confirms a Ukrainian soldier.
Another Ukrainian soldier said he saw Wagner’s ex-prisoners advancing on the front line. “They have orders to advance. And if they don’t, they will be executed,” he said. Most civilians don’t know that the Wagner militia are responsible for their hell hole. 17,000 people fled to the cellars. “We don’t know anything. We don’t have internet, we’re always there,” says a woman. The city of Bakhmout has lost all strategic interest in Moscow. “However, Wagner’s mercenaries are relentless, driven by their leader in a quest for notoriety, and of course, as always, the civilians are in the thick of these fights,” concludes Maryse Burgot, special envoy to Ukraine.