Yevgeny Prigozhin (L) assists Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a dinner with foreign scholars and journalists at the restaurant Cheval Blanc on the premises of an equestrian complex outside Moscow November 11, 2011. Picture taken November 11. Photo: REUTERS/Misha Japaridze/Pool

i24 News – The owner of the Russian Wagner Group private military, actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine, predicted that the war could drag on for years.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.

“As far as I understand, we need to close off the Donetsk and Luhansk republics and in principle that will suit everyone for now,” he told Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov in a video published on Friday.

That alone could take anywhere between 18 months to two years.

“If we have to get to the Dnipro, then it will take about three years,” Prigozhin added, referring to a larger area that would extend to the vast Dnipro River that runs roughly north to south, bisecting Ukraine.

Wagner forces claimed to have spearheaded the assault on Ukraine’s eastern salt-mining town of Solder that fell under Russian control in January. They are also playing a key role in the offensive for neighboring Bakhmut, which has been the scene of heavy fighting for months.

Notorious for the brutality of its recruits, the private fighting force has several times claimed battlefield victories ahead of Russia’s army. Founded in 2014, Wagner has been implicated in conflicts in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It shot to prominence after President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.