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Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday that his men had begun withdrawing from Bakhmut, a Ukrainian city captured by the Russians after months of intense fighting. It was the Wagner group, which had managed the military operations in the city, that announced Bakhmut’s conquest. Prigozhin said the mercenaries will leave Bakhmut by June 1st and that by then control of the city will be handed over to the Russian army. However, he added that if the situation in the city were to become “too difficult” for the regular Russian soldiers, he would be ready to intervene again with the mercenaries.