A unit of Belarusian volunteers fighting alongside Ukraine has released extraordinary footage of an operation to clear Russian trenches near Bakhmut.
Interspersed with aerial footage from drones above, the unit can be seen advancing and firing on Russian positions, passing numerous dead bodies long the way.
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According to the battalion’s post on Telegram, the unit was told to “advance to the enemy's dugout, destroy the personnel, occupy and secure a strategically important border.”
“Task accomplished,” the post concludes.
The full video can be viewed here on Telegram.
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Headcam videos showing the brutal reality of the conflict have been a regular feature of the war, particularly the fighting around Bakhmut.
Last month similar footage filmed by a Ukrainian soldier showed the brutal close-quarters fighting around the besieged city.
Russian attackers are at one stage so close a Ukrainian soldier shouts: "What's up orcs? It's our field, f••k off.”
The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Saturday asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in the flashpoint Ukraine city of Bakhmut to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, AFP reports.
Wagner fighters are leading the battle for Bakhmut, during which rivalries between Prigozhin and the Russian army have come to the surface.
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Wagner has spearheaded the grinding, months-long Russian assault on Bakhmut, almost capturing the city in the longest and bloodiest battle of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
"I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion" Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The Akhmat battalion refers to combat units under the command of strongman Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia's Muslim-majority republic Chechnya for the last decade-and-a-half.
In a series of scathing videos on Friday, Prigozhin blamed Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for "tens of thousands" of killed and wounded Russian fighters in Ukraine.
"Their unprofessionalism is destroying tens of thousands of Russian guys and that is unforgivable," he had said. Prigozhin said his fighters would be forced to pull out because of an "ammunition famine," adding that the Russian defence ministry had only delivered 32 percent of the required ammunition since October.
Kadyrov later said on Telegram his forces were "ready to move" towards Bakhmut. "The soldiers are on alert, we are just waiting for orders," he said.
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