Wagner chief ‘obsessed’ with capturing Bakhmut for its salt mines, US says

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary group - Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Contributor
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary group - Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Contributor
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary group, is “obsessed” with capturing valuable salt and gypsum deposits near Bakhmut, the US has said, fueling vicious fighting.

According to White House officials, thousands of soldiers on both sides have now died in the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region because Mr Prigozhin wants to capture mines for “monetary motives”.

Wagner’s determination to capture Bakhmut has baffled Western analysts because it holds little strategic value.

Fighting in Bakhmut has been described as a “meat grinder” with Wagner fighters and Ukrainian soldiers fighting for a day just for control of one building.

Often called “Putin’s chef” because of catering contracts he keeps with the Kremlin, Mr Prigozhin’s prominence has soared since the start of the war.

'We are being successful'

On the Telegram social messaging app, he denied that he wanted to capture nearby deposits. Instead, he referenced famous Russian mediaeval and Napoleonic battlefield victories and said that the battle for Bakhmut would be decisive.

“Bakhmut today is the meeting place of two armies like Kulikovo, Borodino and other historical examples where one army must destroy another,” he said. “And it seems to me that we are being successful.”

Wagner has operated since 2014 but the Kremlin had regarded it as a deniable asset doing its dirty work in the Middle East and Africa in exchange for riches. The US has accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses and looting gold and diamond mines in the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan.

Bakhmut’s salt mines are the biggest in Europe and contain 125 miles of tunnels. The salt from Bakhmut is exported and used in several different ways, including as table salt.

Gypsum is a soft sulphate material used mainly in construction and fertiliser products.

'Thousands of Wagner mercenaries former convicts'

Last year, after the Russian army suffered several battlefield defeats in quick succession, the Kremlin allowed Wagner to recruit openly from across Russia and also from prisons.

Thousands of Wagner fighters have now fought alongside regular Russian soldiers in the Donbas, and on Telegram Wagner crowed that the differences between the two armies have blurred after Putin awarded one of its mercenaries a medal for bravery.

“There are no differences among the defenders of the Motherland,” it said.

Of 50,000 Wagner mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, the US has said that 40,000 are former convicts, mainly murderers and drug dealers. In exchange for a six-month battlefield tour of Ukraine, they were promised a pardon.

On Thursday, Mr Prigrozhin congratulated the first of these former convicts for completing their tours and receiving pardons, advising them not to drink too much or to rape women after they re-enter Russian society.

The BBC has identified one of the former convicts-turned-mercenary as a 34-year-old career criminal and drug addict who has been in and out of prison since 2011, including for murder.

Civic groups in Russia have been horrified at the release of murderers after fighting with Wagner in Ukraine. They have said that under Russian law, only the president can give out pardons.