Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group, has released a video in which he poses next to what he claims is the body of an American volunteer killed while fighting alongside Ukraine.
In a video shared by Russian military bloggers, Yevgeny Prigozhin and some of his men are seen walking at night before showing the body in the rubble of a building.
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Standing beside the body, which appears to have suffered a stomach wound, Prigozhin said: “He came to meet us. Citizen of the United States of America.”
“We will return him to the United States. We will put him in a coffin (with) the American flag. With respect, because he didn’t die in a grandfather’s bed but in the war.”
Prigozhin shows the camera what appears to be the soldier’s identity documents, without giving a full name.
Wagner is currently engaged in heavy fighting in the Bakhmut area of eastern Ukraine and although explosions can be heard in the background of the video, it is not clear exactly where it was filmed.
Ukraine said on Tuesday it had pushed Russian forces from the flanks of Bakhmut but conceded that Moscow’s forces were pushing deeper inside the embattled town.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukraine had wrested back about 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) of a Russian pincer movement around Bakhmut, the epicenter of fighting in Russia’s invasion.
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“At the same time, the enemy is advancing in some measure inside Bakhmut itself and is completely destroying the town with artillery,” she added on social media.
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