While withdrawing from the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region of Ukraine, PMC Wagner’s mercenaries exchanged fire with Russian servicemen that had mined the fighters’ escape routes, taking a lieutenant colonel prisoner, press service of Wagner’s leader and founder Yevgeny Prigozhin reports.
According to the PMC, the confrontation took place on 17 May. The mercenaries found out that Russian soldiers had been noticed in the area near the villages of Opytne and Ozarianivka, Donetsk region; they were mining the escape routes of the PMC fighters.
While trying to demine guided bombs, Wagner’s sappers came under Russian fire, the published report of one of the mercenaries claims. No one was hurt, only a service car was damaged. Following the shootout, the mercenaries detained the attackers, including a lieutenant colonel — commander of the 72th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. The report indicates that the commander was drunk.
Prigozhin’s press service has also shared a video which allegedly shows the lieutenant colonel in question, Roman Venevitin, confessing to opening fire against the mercenaries “because of personal animosity”. Media outlet The Insider was able to confirm the identity of the man in the video — Venevitin is indeed a Russian serviceman, he graduated from a military academy.
On 25 May, Prigozhin announced the beginning of withdrawal of Wagner’s units from Bakhmut. He said that the main forces would relocate to rear camps before 1 June.
