Expert: Wagner's statement on withdrawal from Bakhmut may be military trick

Colonel Petro Chernyk, a military analyst, expressed this assumption in a commentary to the Military Media Center, Ukrinform reports.

A businessman close to Putin, Prygozhin, said on Friday that his private military company, Wagner, would withdraw from Bakhmut on May 10 due to the Russian Defense Ministry's refusal to provide them with sufficient ammunition. However, Chernik believes that this statement is "very likely" an imitation of 

the enemy's weakness - a common phenomenon in warfare for centuries.

According to the analyst, often one of the parties to the confrontation tries to show itself weaker, which lures the enemy, who is not ready to fight.

"There may be a subtle satanic detail here, that they seem to be withdrawing, we are tempted to take some counteroffensive actions, but in fact no one has gone anywhere," Chernyk said.

"I don't believe the Russians as such, they should be treated very carefully in everything they say," he added.

As reported earlier, Bakhmut, along with other cities in the Donetsk region - Maryinka and Avdiivka - remains the epicenter of the enemy's offensive. The Russian army is trying its best to take control of Bakhmut by May 9.