British intelligence says Wagner, Russian MoD may have improved cooperation in Bakhmut

The UK Ministry of Defense reported the information citing intelligence data.

"There is realistic possibility that, locally, Wagner and Russian MoD commanders have paused their ongoing feud and improved co-operation," the ministry writes.

British experts report that since the end of March, the advance of Russian troops has largely stopped, but Russia has now made some progress and "has now highly likely advanced into the town centre, and has seized the west bank of the Bakhmutka River."

"Ukraine’s key 0506 supply route to the west of the town is likely severely threatened. Russian regular forces, likely including airborne troops, have probably reinforced the area, and Russia is again using artillery more effectively in the sector," the statement said.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 7 April 2023.

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• Earlier, Ukraine’s Security Service Colonel Roman Kostenko said that the intensity of fighting in the Bakhmut direction is changing rapidly. Mykola Volokhov, commander of the Terra reconnaissance unit, said that heavy and fierce fighting is taking place near the Bakhmut city council. 

• In the morning, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka are the centers of the fighting: The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed a Ka-52 helicopter and repelled more than 60 Russian attacks. 

• Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern military grouping, said that the situation in Bakhmut is constantly changing, a positional war is underway: fighting in the city's urban areas is the most difficult.

• Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said that none of the Russian propaganda narratives about the situation in Bakhmut are true.