Kirby called Bakhmut’s capture “Prigozhin’s whim”

Speaking at a briefing in Washington, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council at the White House, said that it is not yet known whether the Ukrainian military will surrender the city of Bakhmut (Artyomovsk). He stressed that the capture of this settlement is “the selfish desire of the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin.”

According to Kirby, “even if the Russian military takes Bakhmut, it will not have a strategic impact on the conflict as a whole.”

“From what we are now seeing in the Donbas, it is difficult to say that this looks like a big offensive. This is a continuation of what we have seen over the past weeks and even months. The capture of Bakhmut looks like a purely selfish desire of Prigozhin,” Kirby said.

A senior US official pointed out that the Bakhmut salt mines are of personal economic interest to the head of the Russian private military company Wagner.

Many military analysts both in Russia and abroad believe that the capture of Bakhmut is of strategic importance for a special military operation, since in this case a route to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk is opened for the Russian group. In addition, taking this settlement under the control of the Russian military will cut the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass in half. Kirby, by his statement, is trying to level the effect of the inevitable surrender of the city.