Wagner forces launch departation of locals in Bakhmut, says Kyiv

According to the Ukrainian government, the forces of the Kremlin-linked Wagnger Private Military Company (PMC) are allegedly deporting residents from the suburbs of Bakhmut.

The Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said, “Militants forcefully take local residents to captured areas of [the] Luhansk region, where they are filtered. After that, they are deported to Perm and other remote regions of the Russian Federation," Al Jazeera reports.

The statement added that this is a “typical story” where Ukrainians are deported under evacuation and “assimilated” in Russian areas.