Ukraine said Sunday its troops would advance further on Bakhmut’s flanks to encircle it after Moscow vowed to take Wagner’s mercenaries and the Russian army to capture the eastern city.
Russia on Saturday said it had taken full control of Bakhmut, marking the end of the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his regular troops and Wagner.
On Sunday, however, a Ukrainian general said Kiev forces still controlled an “insignificant” part of Bachmout, which would allow them further access to the city should the situation change.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Telegram message that Kievan troops were advancing on Russian forces in the suburbs and were closing in on a “tactical encirclement” of the city, which once had a population of 70,000.
“Our forces have half encircled the city, which gives us the opportunity to annihilate the enemy (…). The enemy must defend themselves in the part of the city they control,” said Hanna Maliar from his side. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, in Telegram.
Ukrainian troops were still defending industrial sites and infrastructure and had claimed part of the heights above, she added.
The leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, later said in an audio message on Telegram that his group’s work was complete and that his troops would leave the conflict zone in the coming days.
“Today Wagner has not conquered any territory. We conquered all the territory that we promised to conquer, down to the last inch,” he said. “As we said yesterday. We hand over our positions to the (Russian) Ministry of Defense and will leave the conflict zone on May 25.”
Zelenskyi: “Photos of Hiroshima in ruins absolutely remind me of Bakhmout”
Military analysts say Bakhmut has no strategic value, although Russia has said its capture would allow a greater advance in the Donbass industrial region, which it has allegedly annexed to Ukraine.
Portal was unable to verify either side’s claims about the battlefield situation.
US President Joe Biden said Russia suffered more than 100,000 casualties at Bakhmut, the destruction of which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy compares to the US nuclear attack on Hiroshima in Japan during World War II.
“I’ll tell you frankly: photos of Hiroshima in ruins absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar places. There is nothing living anymore, all the buildings are in ruins,” he told reporters on Sunday while attending a G7 summit in the Japanese city.
“So far, the Russian Federation has not captured Bakhmout. There aren’t two or three possible interpretations,” he added.