Macron urges Xi to pressure Moscow

The head of Russia’s Wagner Group said that Ukrainian forces were not leaving the city of Bakhmut, and fighting was continuing in the western part of the city.

“It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said on his Telegram channel.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a possible withdrawal from the city, saying Kyiv would take the “corresponding” decisions if its forces in the city risked being encircled by Russian troops.

But Pavlo Narozhniy, a Ukrainian military analyst, told NV Radio that Ukrainian forces were exhausting Russian troops to prepare for a counterattack.

“Bakhmut is performing the key task of inflicting as many losses on Russia as possible and, most importantly, to prepare for a counter-attack to take place in late April-May,” Narozhniy said.