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KIEV, Feb. 11 (AP) — The owner of Russia’s Wagner Group private military contractor active in the fighting in Ukraine predicts the war could last for years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take Russia 18 months to two years to gain full control of Donbass, the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine.
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The war could last three years if Moscow decides to occupy wider territory east of the Dnieper, he added.
The statement by Prigozhin, the millionaire who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and known as “Putin’s chef” for his lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, marks an acknowledgment by the Kremlin of the difficulties it faces in the campaign. The Kremlin initially expected it to end within weeks of the Feb. 24 Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
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Russia suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in the fall when the Ukrainian military launched a successful counteroffensive to retake swathes of territory in the east and south.
The Kremlin avoided predicting how long the fighting would last, saying what it called a “special military operation” would continue until its objectives were achieved.
The Russian military is focusing on the Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk that make up the Donbass region, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.
Ukrainian and Western officials have warned that Russia could launch a new broad offensive in an attempt to turn the tide of the conflict as the war approaches the one-year mark. But Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrei Chernyak told the Kiev Post that “the Russian command does not have enough resources to conduct a large-scale offensive operation.”
“The main objective of the Russian military remains to achieve at least some tactical success in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
Prigozhin said Wagner Group mercenaries were fighting fiercely for control of the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. He acknowledged fierce resistance from Ukrainian troops.
Moscow is also trying to demoralize Ukrainians by leaving them without heat and water during the harsh winter as Russian forces advance their offensive in the Donbass.
On Friday, Russia launched its 14th round of massive strikes against energy facilities and other critical infrastructure in Ukraine. The high-voltage infrastructure in the east, west, and south areas was affected, and power was cut off in some areas.
Ukrainian energy company Ukrenergo said on Saturday the situation was “difficult but manageable,” adding that backups were involved to maintain power supplies, but noted that blackouts would continue in some areas.
Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valery Zarouzhny said Russian forces fired 71 cruise missiles, 35 S-300 missiles and seven Shahed drones between late Thursday and midday Friday. plane, adding that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 61 cruise missiles and five drones.
Late Friday, Ukrainian authorities reported more attacks by killer drones. The Ukrainian Air Force said the military shot down 20 Shahed drones during the night.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday’s airstrikes hit all designated targets, halted operations at Ukrainian defense factories and blocked the supply of Western weapons and ammunition. The claim could not be independently verified.
Late Friday, Russian military bloggers and some Ukrainian news outlets released a video showing a maritime drone attacking a strategic railway bridge in the Odessa region. The blurry video shows a fast-moving object on the water approaching the Zatoka Bridge about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Odessa and exploding in a powerful explosion.
The authenticity of the video could not be verified. The Ukrainian military has yet to comment on the attack, and regional government spokesman Serhii Bratchuk would not confirm the drone attack in a televised address Saturday.
If confirmed, the strike would mark Russia’s first use of a maritime drone in a conflict. Igor Korotchenko, a retired colonel in the Russian Armed Forces who often commented on the conflict on Russian state television, said Saturday that such drones should be equipped with more powerful explosives to cause more damage.
The bridge was the target of Russian missile strikes early in the war, and it serves a railway line to Romania, an important conduit for Western arms supplies. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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