Russo-Ukrainian War: Video of the infamous Wagner mercenary fighting in Donbass . appeared

Mercenaries of the Wagner Group have been “revealed” for the first time in the fierce fighting in Ukraine as the Russian army tries to take control of Donbass, Britain’s Daily Mail reports.

Video from a drone over the town of Popansa, eastern Ukraine, shows a group of Russians believed to be Wagner mercenaries fiercely fighting in the street with Ukrainian resistance forces. Video shows a group of Wagner mercenaries breaking into a house, throwing grenades before forcing the Ukrainian soldiers to surrender.

The video of a group of Wagner mercenaries fighting in the Donbass first appeared on the Telegram channel “Colonel Cassad” – a channel dedicated to posting military updates from Ukraine to hundreds of thousands of followers.

The video was later shared by Rob Lee, a respected analyst in the War Studies department of King’s College in the UK. Mr. Rob also claimed that the group of people appearing in the video were Wagner mercenaries.

The video emerged as British intelligence on May 4 said that Russian forces were “struggling to break through the defenses” of Ukraine in the fight for the Donbass, the outcome of which is seen as pivotal and decisive for the war in general.

The British Ministry of Defense said that Russian commanders appeared to be trying to capture the cities of Severodonetsk and Kramatorsk – to the north and west of Popansa – using forces concentrated in the area.

“Capturing these sites would strengthen Russia’s military control of the Donbass in the northeast and create funds to eliminate Ukrainian forces in the area,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Russia has focused on its efforts to gain control of eastern Ukraine after initial attempts to capture Kiev and other key cities to the north of it failed.

Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is currently taking place along a front line hundreds of kilometers long, extending from Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south, and along the Azov and Black Sea coasts to Kherson and Mykolaiv.

Some of the fiercest battles were taking place in Popansa and Lyman as the Russians attempted to encircle the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stretched across the Donets River.

The move is intended to cut off Ukrainian defenses from reinforcements and make it easier to capture these cities. If these cities fall, they could be used as a springboard for Russian forces to push further west – to Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, according to the Daily Mail.