The founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force has claimed to have nearly reached the centre of Bakhmut.

In a post on Telegram, the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's founder, cited him as saying: "The lads are mucking about, shooting home video. They brought this from Bakhmut this morning, practically the centre of the city."

In the video, uniformed men are shown lifting a Wagner banner atop a semi-ruined multi-storey building. One of the men is shown dancing and holding a guitar, a reference to Wagner's informal nickname of "the musicians".

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