By Andrew Osborn
LONDON (Reuters) - The&nbsp;founder of Russia's most high-profile&nbsp;mercenary&nbsp;group said on Saturday&nbsp;he&nbsp;wanted his forces and the&nbsp;regular&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;army to capture the&nbsp;small city of&nbsp;Bakhmut&nbsp;in eastern Ukraine because it possessed "underground cities" that can hold troops and tanks.
Russia's grinding more than five months-long push to try to take&nbsp;Bakhmut&nbsp;has puzzled some Western military analysts who have said that&nbsp;heavy losses incurred on the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;side and the&nbsp;fact that Ukraine has built defensive lines to fall back to nearby mean any&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;victory there, if it happens, would be pyrrhic.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner&nbsp;mercenary&nbsp;group which is fighting in the&nbsp;battle of&nbsp;Bakhmut, set out in detail on Saturday why&nbsp;he&nbsp;thought&nbsp;its&nbsp;capture would be significant.
"The&nbsp;cherry on the&nbsp;cake is the&nbsp;system of Soledar and&nbsp;Bakhmut&nbsp;mines, which is actually a network of underground cities. It not only (has the&nbsp;ability to hold) a big group of people at a depth of 80-100 metres, but tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can also move about."
Prigozhin, who would likely see his political capital in Moscow boosted if&nbsp;Bakhmut&nbsp;fell to Russia given Wagner's role in the&nbsp;fighting there, said stockpiles of weapons had been stored in the&nbsp;underground complexes since World War One.
His comments were a reference to vast salt and other mines in the&nbsp;area which contain more than 100 miles of tunnels and a vast underground room which has hosted football matches and classical music concerts in more peaceful times.
A White House official said on Thursday that Washington believed Prigozhin wanted to take control of salt and gypsum mines in the&nbsp;area for commercial reasons. It made no mention of their alleged subterranean military use.
Prigozhin, who is sanctioned in the&nbsp;West, cited other advantages of taking&nbsp;Bakhmut, calling it "a serious logistics centre" with unique defensive fortifications.
He&nbsp;made his comments on his press service's Telegram channel as shellfire echoed around&nbsp;Bakhmut's near-deserted streets on Saturday despite a self-declared&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;ceasefire to mark Orthodox Christmas, something Kyiv rejected as a ploy.
Bakhmut, which Russia calls Artyomovsk, is the&nbsp;focus of the&nbsp;most intense fighting in Ukraine, and Prigozhin made his comments as another Telegram channel associated with Wagner claimed Russia had captured a strategically-important settlement on&nbsp;Bakhmut's outskirts.
Reuters could not independently verify the&nbsp;assertion.
The&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;defence ministry earlier on Saturday reported fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman said the&nbsp;town of Soledar, which is near&nbsp;Bakhmut&nbsp;and hosts a salt mine, was still under Ukrainian control despite what&nbsp;he&nbsp;described as fierce&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;assaults.
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(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christina Fincher)

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Russian mercenary boss says he wants Ukraine's Bakhmut for its 'underground cities'