Earlier today, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that as a result of the offensive actions of the Wagner assault detachments, with the support of artillery and aviation of the Southern Group of Forces, the liberation of Bakhmut was completed. Ironically, the mercenaries of Wagner PMC were instrumental in taking the city. Only recently, their chief, Yevgeny Prigoxhim threatened to withdraw his forces from the frontlines in Bakhmut unless they received the full quota of munitions he had been asking the Kremlin for. Bakhmut is located in the north of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). It was an important transport hub for supplying the Ukrainian group of troops in the Donbas and a powerful outpost of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ferocious fighting for control of the city began on August 1, 2022. The battle became one of the largest during the attempted Russian liberation of Donbas since 2014. Before the start of the fighting, the city had a population of around 72,000 people.