Fleeing Russian soldiers on the rise as Ukraine troops advance in Bakhmut

Now, the chief of Russia's Wagner mercenary group has said that President Zelensky was being deceptive after suggestions that Ukrainian forces had recaptured the city of Bakhmut. Yeah, he said that the situation on the flanks is shaping up according to the worst predicted scenario for Russia that is, so that signals more misery it would seem for Putin's troops. Well joining us this morning to help unravel these new developments is political reporter Stefan Boscher. Good morning to you Stefan, really good to have you with us and it does need unraveling this because we've had conflicting reports in the past few days about this spring offensive and movements being made by Ukraine in Bakhmut. That's right, some of the most movement was seen on a very stagnant Eastern front for a very long time now over winter. It has been a very much a static situation in the Eastern territories of Ukraine who have seen over the last few days of the last week that territory is being won back by the Ukrainian forces. The big question has been whether this is the long awaited counter offensive by the Ukrainian troops that is expected to start very imminently if not this could be the start of it.

The Ukrainian forces are saying no this is just local skirmishes and local battles in this Eastern city of Bakhmut, one of the key theaters of this war and it has as you said really revealed some splits in the Russian military and their paramilitary forces such as Wagner. You've got to be so careful with this so don't you Stefan in terms of expectation management I mean and particularly how President Zelensky deals with that and what is actually happening I mean in some respects getting the truth out there is not necessarily helpful I hate to say it. That's right in both sides have their own story to tell and they're both going to put their own spin on it completely. I think what we have to do is rely on independent organizations independent think tanks independent NGOs while also you know ultimately we are allied with Zelensky and the Ukrainian while we you know are supporting that effort very strongly we also need to think that everything we hear from them is going to be 100% the truth because they are in a war where propaganda is key. I think that you know we do have enough information to show that yes there is increased fighting in Bakhmut and the Ukraine are doing well but just to suggest they've taken the cities obviously not anywhere near where it is but it is really the important thing is that it can it may show that this is the start of what could be a very long counter offensive in Ukraine which will take months likely if not longer and will most likely set up what the you know how the state of play is in this war for a long time. We had it confirmed this week from Ben Wallace the Defence Secretary that we are sending storm shadow missiles to Ukraine these long-range missiles how much does that change the game if at all for Ukraine? I believe this is the first time they've been given long-range missiles so it it makes such a big difference it means that they'll be able to fire from obviously further away from within their own territories it means they can more tactically hit targets from the Russian supply lines coming into eastern Ukraine it just you know it's another you string to their bow and another example of the West getting behind Ukraine and providing them with the very best military equipment and fighting fighting resources that we have and I think as this war goes on if this support continues from the UK from the US from NATO we're going to get to a point but if we haven't already reached it where the equipment being used by Ukraine is far superior by than Russia and it will continue to hopefully grind the Russian forces down I think that you know very significantly as we heard earlier is the fact that Prokofievna the leader of Wagner which is like Putin's private army and it works very closely with the Russian army is saying that in eastern Ukraine that there is now Russian soldiers you know we've seen it quite a bit we're seeing increased instances of Russian soldiers fleeing and not wanting to face any sort of Ukrainian offensive so we are at a point where there does seem to be an opportunity for Ukraine to make some serious gains.

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