Kyiv: Days after claiming that Wagner troops had taken control of the destroyed city, the head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner claimed on Thursday that his troops have begun withdrawing from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and handing control to the Russian military.

The millionaire owner of Wagner with longstanding ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, predicted in a video posted on Telegram that the transfer would be finished by June 1. The Russian defence ministry did not respond right away.

Whether Wagner's withdrawal from the bombed-out city has started after a nine-month battle that claimed tens of thousands of lives could not be independently verified.

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According to the deputy defence minister of Ukraine, Wagner fighters are still present inside the city even though regular troops have taken the place of Wagner units in the suburbs. According to Hanna Maliar, deputy minister of defence, Ukrainian forces continue to control some territory in the southwest.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has lost steam, and he now faces the possibility of a Ukrainian counteroffensive using cutting-edge weapons provided by Kyiv's Western allies. Prigozhin's victory at Bakhmut provided a much-needed victory for Putin.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to the Ukrainian president, declared on Thursday that the country's counteroffensive was already under way but issued a warning that it shouldn't be seen as a "single event" beginning "at a specific hour of a specific day."

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Podolyak wrote on Twitter that "dozens of different actions to destroy Russian occupation forces" had "already been taking place yesterday, are taking place today, and will continue tomorrow."

Since Wagner's invention, Prigozhin and the Russian military hierarchy have been at odds. He has also developed a reputation for making contentious statements that make headlines but are frequently unfounded.

He has publicly and repeatedly criticised Russia's military leadership throughout the 15-month conflict in Ukraine, charging them with incompetence and failing to adequately supply his troops as they led the battle for Bakhmut.

Wagner's role in Bakhmut's capture has elevated Prigozhin's status, which he has used to express his own opinions about the course of the war.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, "Prigozhin is... using the idea that Wagner is to blame for Bakhmut's capture to advocate for a ridiculous level of influence over the Russian war effort in Ukraine."

He frequently criticises Russia's military performance, which is unusual in Russia's tightly regulated political system where only Putin typically has the ability to do so.

A day after again defying the Kremlin line on Ukraine, he made a clear declaration of his plans for the upcoming week in Bakhmut. He acknowledged that Russia's attempt to demilitarise the nation backfired, claimed that civilians were killed by Russian forces, and concurred with Western estimates that he lost more than 20,000 soldiers in the battle for Bakhmut.

As part of its 12th nighttime air attack on the Ukrainian capital this month, Russian launched a barrage of Iranian-made Shahed 36 drones at Kyiv, but the city's air defences shot down every one of them, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

The Ukrainian military reported that the Kremlin's forces also carried out 30 airstrikes, 39 rocket attacks from a variety of launchers, and artillery and mortar attacks throughout Ukraine.

According to information released on Thursday by the Ukrainian presidential office, at least one civilian was killed and 13 others were injured in Ukraine on Wednesday and overnight. Five Swedish diplomats will be deported from Russia, the Foreign Ministry there announced on Thursday.

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The decision, according to the statement, was made in retaliation to Stockholm's "openly hostile step" in April declaring "personae non grata" five employees of Russian foreign missions in Sweden.

Further announcements from Moscow included its plans to close its consulate in Goteborg in September and its "withdrawal of consent" to the operations of the Swedish consulate.