Prigozhin Claims Ukrainian Commander Killed in Bakhmut Strike

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russian paramilitary outfit the Wagner Group, has said a Ukrainian commander was killed in a strike by his forces near the city of Bakhmut.

In an audio message released on Tuesday by the press service of Prigozhin's company Concord, he said his fighters destroyed an armored vehicle in an artillery strike, "presumably" killing Major General Ihor Tantsyura, commander of Kyiv's Territorial Defense Forces.

Tantsyura took up his post in May 2022, nearly three months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Ukraine's defense ministry said at the time that Tantsyura would succeed Yuriy Halushkin, without elaborating on why Halushkin was being replaced as commander.

"Today, during the approach of reserves from the settlement of Chasiv Yar to the settlement of Bakhmut, the artillery units of the Wagner PMC [private military company] destroyed an armored car in which the commander of the territorial defense forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ihor Tantsyura, was presumably located," Prigozhin said.

He added that the car had been headed to Bakhmut, a small industrial city in the east of the country where Russian and Ukrainian forces have clashed since the summer of 2022.

Prigozhin's press service also published an image of a destroyed vehicle on Tuesday.

However, Ukraine's armed forces quickly Prigozhin's claim that Tantsyura had been killed.

"Everyone is alive and well," Denys Zelinskyi, a spokesperson for the Territorial Defense Forces, told local television network Suspilne. "We officially deny [Prigozhin's] statement. We do not comment on any spewing of enemy propaganda."

Roman Hryshchenko, commander of the 127th brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces, later told Suspilne that there had been "attempts by the enemy to injure the commander. But he is alive, healthy, unharmed and continues to perform his duties."

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict that Russian reactions to the claimed strike against Tantsyura "suggest Russian ultranationalists seek to frame any Russian operations as delaying potential Ukrainian counteroffensive actions."

"Milbloggers widely circulated Prigozhin's claims and framed the strike as an informational victory," the institute said.

"A prominent milblogger claimed that Tantsyura received an order to transfer reserves to Bakhmut and prepare Ukrainian forces to conduct counterattacks in the area, likely to frame the Russian strike as an operationally significant event which delayed potential upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive actions," it added.

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine's foreign ministry via email for comment.

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