 Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigazin said on Friday that the city of Bakhmat was unlikely to fall to his mercenary forces in the next two days as fighting raged around Ukrainian soldiers hold up in a makeshift fortress in the south of the city. The Ukrainian city of Bakhmat, known in Russia by its Soviet era name of Artyomovsk, is in ruins after months of intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces who call it the meat grinder. Bakhmat has still not been taken, Prigazin said in a voice message posted on Telegram. It is unlikely to be taken either tomorrow, he added. Russia has been trying to capture Bakhmat since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.