Wagner Group

Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia's war in Ukraine.

The greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power fizzled out after the rebellious mercenary commander who ordered his troops to march on Moscow abruptly reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and sounded the retreat.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed Russia's military would be victorious in Ukraine and blamed Western countries for the conflict, comparing the fighting to World War II during a military parade on Red Square.

Namely, in its latest report dated April 26, ISW recalled that the founder of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin noted that as soon as the weather conditions in Bakhmut improve, Ukraine will launch a counteroffensive, which could coincide with Russia's May 9 Victory Day holiday (the commemoration of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945).

Ukrainian troops have been forced to withdraw from some areas around the city of Bakhmut as Russia renewed its offensive with intense artillery fire over the past two days, Britain said on Friday in an intelligence update cited by Reuters.

Russia's advance seems to have stalled in Moscow's campaign to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a leading think tank said in an assessment of the longest ground battle of the war.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the "Wagner Group" paramilitary formation, which is fighting in Ukraine, claims that the entire eastern part of the city of Bakhmut is under Russian control.

The United States on Jan. 20 designated Russia's Wagner group as a "transnational criminal organization," piling pressure on the private Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

The Belarusian security company GuardService(Gardservis), the only one allowed to own firearms by order of Alexander Lukashenko, has increased its staff several times and is preparing to participate in military operations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday his troops were withstanding "new and even tougher assaults" on Soledar, near the eastern city of Bakhmut that Moscow has been trying to capture for months.