On May 8th, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin posted on Telegram 14 points summarising the situation around Bakhmut. He stated that Wagner no longer had enough personel to secure its flanks, so the regular Russian army were given that task. He stated that those flanks were already 'cracking and falling apart' due to a Ukraine counter-offensive, and that his Wagner troops were at 'serious risk of encirclement'. On May 10th, Ukraine announced that that Russian troops guarding those flanks had fled.
The official Russian line is that the army is 'regrouping'. Prigozhin has a somewhat different take on it
"Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away three square km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men," Prigozhin said.
Interesting developments in Russia, with Ivor Girkin forming a new political party made up of ultra-nationalists. He believes that without Putin, Russia would collapse, and has stated previously that a successful Ukraine counter-offensive could be the catalyst
Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organize pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, said the group hoped to prevent the collapse of Russia.
"A systemic crisis is brewing in Russia - or it is already in the grip of crisis - while the temperature of society is rising," Girkin told Reuters. "We are on the cusp of very grave internal political changes of a catastrophic character."
"All healthy forces need to create organizations which will take part in the political battle which is inevitable - and which has already started," he said.