Russia claims to have fully captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after months of intense fighting. President Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian armed forces and the Wagner private army, the mercenary group which played the central role in ground operations during the 8-month battle for the control of the strategic city in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Russian state media reported Saturday.
The Russian claims were supported by some Western sources. “Moscow has captured ‘99.9% of geographic boundaries’ of Bakhmut,” the TV channel Sky News reported Sunday citing a source close to British intelligence. “Soldiers of the Wagner mercenary group have been filmed raising Russian flags in Bakhmut after claiming control of the city,” the UK broadcaster added.
The Sky News reported Russian President’s claims:
Vladimir Putin has congratulated the Wagner Groups of mercenary fighters and the Russian army today for what he called the “liberation” of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.In a statement published on the Kremlin website, the Russian leader said the battle – the longest and bloodiest of the 15-month war – had ended in a Russian victory, and that all those who had excelled in it on Moscow’s side would be given state awards.”The head of state congratulated Wagner’s assault groups, aswell as all members of the units of the Russian Armed Forces who provided them with the necessary support and cover on their flanks, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artyomovsk [the Russian name for Bakhmut],” the statement said.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to admit the Russian control over the city. “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Bakhmut was “only in our hearts,” hours after Russia’s defense ministry reported that forces of the Wagner private army, with the support of Russian troops, had seized the city in eastern Ukraine,” the Associate Press reported.
The Ukrainian leader later walked back those remarks, saying that the city was not yet fully under Russian control. “President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday insisted that the east Ukrainian city Bakhmut — which Moscow claimed to have captured a day earlier — was “not occupied”,” the France24 TV channel reported.
The Euronews reported Kyiv’s response:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russian forces weren’t occupying Bakhmut, casting doubt on Moscow’s claims that the eastern Ukrainian city has fallen.Responding to a reporter’s question about the status of the city at the Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Zelenskyy said: “Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation as of today”.
Beside its symbolic significance (In December, President Zelensky presented the U.S. Congress with a Ukrainian flag signed by the defenders of Bakhmut), the fall of city could solidify Russia’s hold over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Bakhmut, with its underground salt mines, provided Ukrainian forces with natural defense against the invading Russian military. Though the actual death toll is hard to come by, but both sides could have lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the eight months of fighting.
Bakhmut offers logistical advantage to the Russian forces if they plan to advance further. “A regional transport and logistics hub, Bakhmut would be useful for Russian forces although that depends on how much of its infrastructure is intact,” the Reuters news agency reported early April. “More importantly, it would provide a stepping stone for Russia to advance on two bigger cities it has long coveted in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.”
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