Unique defense capabilities, natural tunnels, underground cities: Prigozhin explains why Russia needs Bakhmut

8The corresponding comment was published today, January 8, 2023, on the businessman's official Telegram channel. 

“Bakhmut is the central point of the Eastern Front and a serious logistics center,” the head of the Wagner Group noted. 

According to him, the city has three unique features in the military dimension.

“The feature of Bakhmut is its unique historical and geographical defense capabilities, which include, firstly, the division of the city into several parts by water obstacles. Secondly, the outskirts of Bakhmut are a complex of settlements that create a single defense system. Thirdly, it is a unique landscape, ravines and heights, which are natural tunnels,” Prigozhin explained. 

At the same time, he considers “the system of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, actually a network of underground cities” to be the 'icing on the cake'. 

“In which there is not only a crowd of people at a depth of 80-100 meters, but also tanks and infantry fighting vehicles move. And the stockpiles of weapons have been stored since the First World War,” Yevgeny Prigozhin emphasized.

• According to the White House, Prigozhin intends to gain control over the Bakhmut salt and gypsum mines