White House believes Prigozhin wants to control salt and gypsum mines in Bakhmut

This is reported by Reuters publications with reference to a senior source in the White House.

Vladimir Putin's associate Yevgeny Prigozhin is interested in establishing control over salt and gypsum mines near Bakhmut.

After all, there are signs that the "obsession" of Russia and Prigozhin with Bakhmut is by financial interest, the official added.

The agency recalled that earlier the United States accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and other places to help finance Moscow's war in Ukraine.

• The founder of PMC Wagner Yevhen Prigozhin justifies his inability to capture Bakhmut by the fact that there are Ukrainian Armed Forces’ "500 lines of defense" in the city. Every 10 meters, in every house, they have to overcome resistance.

• Analysts of the Institute for the Study of War believe that the financier of the private military company Wagner is trying to shift the responsibility for the failures in Bakhmut onto the Russian Ministry of Defense.