Ukrainian forces have destroyed a facility of Russian-linked Wagner Group in a town that has been under Moscow’s rule since 2014, according to the governor of Luhansk.
According to local media reports, 22 individuals were killed and four more were injured in the attack. The British Ministry of Defence announced on March that the Wagner Group was involved in assisting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
The governor, Serhey Hayday, claimed on Friday that shelling hit the base in the stadium in Kadiivka in Eastern Ukraine, Newsweek reported.
The governor shared a post on Friday on Twitter, in which he said, “Wagner base in occupied Luhansk region was destroyed, only one racist survived. The enemy base is located at the local stadium in Kadiivka, which the Russians brazenly occupied in 2014.”
The video showed a building on fire with thick black smoke out into the sky, according to Newsweek report.
Amid the intense fighting in Severodonetsk, the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk province, one of its emblems the Ice Palace was destroyed on Thursday. Russia is determined to seize Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, as one of its principal war objectives.
Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday the situation in Severodonetsk was “extremely complicated” and Russian forces were focusing all of their might in the area.
Moscow has categorically denied the private company’s role in safeguarding the Kremlin’s military interests.
Ukraine says its only hope to turn the tide in its favour in the small industrial city is more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled since Russia launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour on February 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.