The Russian private military group Wagner claimed to have captured the small village of Krasna Hora, just north of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, as the battle for control of the Donetsk region intensifies.
It comes as Russian forces continue to attempt to encircle the city. Krasna Hora lies on the main north-south road leading to Bakhmut. It sits just below Soledar, the town that Russian forces captured last month.
Ukrainian troops have in recent weeks reported heavy fighting around Krasna Hora. Russian forces appeared to have originally bypassed the village, initially pushing further west toward the M-03 road that leads from Bakhmut to the strategically important city of Sloviansk.
A post on the Wagner Telegram channel showed fighters standing in front of a Krasna Hora sign. CNN has geolocated the sign to a southwestern entrance to the village, in the direction of Bakhmut.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed the capture of Krasna Hora in a statement on Telegram, and repeated his claim that Wagner was leading the charge in the battle for Bakhmut.
“Within a radius of 50 km (31 miles), give or take, there are only PMC Wagner fighters who will take Bakhmut,” he said.
A Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut, Denys Yaroslavskyi, told Ukrainian television last month that “super qualified” regular Russian military troops were now assisting Wagner private military contractors in assaulting the towns surrounding Bakhmut.