Due to shelling, the power in the nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia is briefly lost
Russian state media celebrated Bakhmut’s alleged capture on Sunday, but a key leader of the months-long assault on the city in eastern Ukraine struggled to get credit.
A segment on a leading Sunday morning newscast compared the Battle of Bakhmut to the Soviet Union’s major victories in World War II. A Russian fighter was shown saying he “probably felt the same emotions as our grandpas in Berlin.” The anchor declared, “Mission Accomplished.”
But even as the state-run Channel 1 newscast featured Bakhmut as the main story, one man went unmentioned: Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary force that lost thousands of fighters in months of frontal assaults on the city. , and an outspoken critic of Russia’s military leadership.
The noticeable omission underscored the lengths the Russian propaganda machine has gone to to hide any sign of it power struggles between elites or problems on the frontline of the Russian people.
While the Ukrainian military insists that Bakhmut was not lost, the Channel 1 newscast on Saturday quoted statements by President Vladimir V. Putin and the Russian Defense Ministry that both gave partial credit to Wagner for capturing the city. Channel 1 also carried footage of gunmen described as Wagner fighters shouting, “Bakhmut is ours!”
But the news outlet did not show or mention Mr Prigozhin, who was the first to broadcast Bakhmut’s alleged capture in a video on Saturday. In his announcement, Mr. Prigozhin stood against the backdrop of the devastated city and denounced Russia’s top general and defense minister for “making the war their personal amusement”.
As the battle for Bakhmut continued and casualties increased on both sides this year, Mr. Prigozhin regularly lashed out at the Russian military elite, alleging that they had failed to supply his fighters with sufficient ammunition and ensure that the regular Russian troops could hold out. when attacked on Wagner’s flanks. In his announcement on Saturday, Mr Prigozhin predicted that his criticisms would not be shown on television.
“Two realities exist in our country,” Prigozhin said on Saturday. “One is real, the other is for television.”
In fact, Russian officials indicated earlier this year that the talking heads of state television should not “promote excessively” Mr Prigozhin, The New York Times. reported in February.
For nearly a year, Russian troops have pushed into Bakhmut while simultaneously destroying block by bloody block in what was once a bustling salt mining town of 70,000.
The Sunday morning newscast showed extensive aerial footage of the devastation and desolation in Bakhmut, but claimed it was Ukrainian troops who destroyed their own city – an echo of Russia’s false narrative when it captured the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol a year ago.
“They were unable to hold the city,” said a reporter on the ground in Bakhmut, referring to the Ukrainian forces. “So they’re trying to level it to the ground.”