Russia's Wagner group could soon cease to exist: Founder

MOSCOW, Apr 30 (Reuters/AFP): Russia's private Wagner militia, which is leading the assault on Bakhmut in Ukraine and has been active in Africa, could soon cease to exist, founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in video remarks to a blogger that were released on Friday.

It was not immediately clear when Prigozhin had spoken and how serious he was being. Earlier this week he withdrew comments about the frontline he said had been a joke.

Prigozhin has complained repeatedly about how Russia is conducting the war in Ukraine. He often says the regular armed forces are not giving his men the ammunition they need and sometimes accuses top brass of betrayal.

"Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending," he told Russian war blogger Semyon Pegov.

"Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen," he continued. Pegov posted the clip on his Telegram channel. Wagner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prigozhin, known for his combative style and ironic sense of humour, said on Thursday he had been joking when he said his forces would stop shelling Bakhmut to allow Ukrainian forces to show the city to US journalists.

Prigozhin said this week his troops were suffering heavy casualties due to a lack of support from Moscow. Last week he expressed concern about a counter-attack by well-equipped Ukrainian troops at Bakhmut.

Wagner has in the past dispatched soldiers to fight in Syria and in conflicts across Africa. In January, the United States formally designated Wagner as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its US assets for helping Russia's military in the Ukraine war.

Ukrainian strike on Russian village kills four: governor

A pre-dawn Ukrainian strike on a Russian border village killed four people and wounded two others, the governor of Russia's western Bryansk region said Sunday.

The strike on the village of Suzemka, which lies a dozen kilometres (seven miles) from the Ukrainian border, came the night after a suspected drone hit a fuel depot in Moscow-annexed Crimea.

"Two more civilians have been found and removed from the rubble.

Unfortunately, both of them died," Alexander Bogomaz, the local governor, said on Telegram.

Bogomaz initially said two people were killed when "the Ukrainian army shelled Suzemka."

Two other villagers were taken to hospital with injuries, the official said.

Bogomaz said Ukrainian shelling hit the village twice overnight and that Russian air defence had "shot down several shells."

He said one shell hit a residential house, sparking a fire, and that two more houses were damaged.

The village has declared a state of emergency, Bogomaz said. "Work is continuing on the removal of rubble," he said. "In the areas where operational measures have been completed, a damage assessment commission has begun working."

Russian villages in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine have been hit by a number of strikes since Moscow began an offensive into the neighbouring country.