Russia's Wagner group claims Ukraine's Bakhmut captured, hoists flag

Moscow [Russia]: Russia's Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, on Monday, claimed to have hoisted the country's flag on Ukraine's Bakhmut city hall, and said that they have technically captured it, TASS reported.

Giving details about the incident, Prigozhin said, "April 2, 23:00 precisely. Behind me is the building of [Artyomovsk's] city administration. This Russian flag is for Vladlen Tatarsky, [the Russian military reporter killed in a blast in St. Petersburg on Sunday]," according to the TASS agency citing the Telegram channel of the Wagner Group founder's press service. 'In grateful memory,' is written on this flag.

"Technically we have captured Bakhmut," Prigozhin added.

He further noted that the commanders of Russian units that captured the city hall and the entire central district "will carry and place the flags". "The adversary remains in Western blocks," he added, according to TASS Agency.

Vladlen Tatarsky, who is a war correspondent and a blogger, was killed on Sunday in an explosion at the country's second-largest city of Saint Petersburg, Interior Ministry confirmed, TASS reported.

The ministry's press centre said, "At 6:13 p.m. on April 2, 2023, the police received information about a blast in Universitetsjaya Embankment 25. As a result, one person was killed. It was war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. Sixteen people were wounded."

Vladlen Tatarsky was widely known at the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine as he used to post daily videos titled Vecherny Vladlen. In the videos, he used to analyze the course of the operation and advised the mobilized.

Apart from that, he shot a video from the event in the Kremlin when Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech on the accession of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR), the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia, according to TASS agency.

In the latest development of the attack, a spokesman for the law enforcement agencies said that the explosive device that went off in a cafe was stuffed with striking elements, the blast targeted war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky.

"The makeshift explosive device that went off in a St. Petersburg cafe was stuffed with striking elements. The target was war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky," the spokesman said.