Zelensky did not confirm Russian capture of Bakhmut, says spokesman, but Putin claims victory
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Wagner group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and members of the mercenary group posing with flags in Bakhmut, after they claimed to have captured the city on May 20.
PHOTO: AFP
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HIROSHIMA/MOSCOW - Ukraine said on Sunday that it was still fighting for control of the eastern city of Bakhmut, after President Volodymyr Zelensky had said earlier that the city remained “only in our hearts”.
Asked before a meeting with United States President Joe Biden in Japan if the city was still in Ukraine’s hands after the Russians said they had seized it in its entirety, Mr Zelensky told reporters: “I think no.”
He added: “For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts.”
Mr Zelensky’s press secretary later clarified that the leader was responding to a different part of the question.
“Reporter’s question: Russians said they have taken Bakhmut,” Mr Sergii Nykyforov wrote on Facebook. “President’s reply: I think no.”
He added in Ukrainian: “In this way, the President denied the capture of Bakhmut.”
Russia claimed on Saturday to have fully captured the smashed eastern Ukrainian city, which if true would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war.
“It is a tragedy,” Mr Zelensky said. “There is nothing on this place.”
The assault on the largely levelled city was led by troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said earlier in the day that his troops had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city.
Ukrainian forces have partly encircled the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut along the flanks and still control a part of the city, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Sunday.
She said Ukrainian troops are continuing their advances along Bakhmut’s outskirts and have claimed part of the heights overlooking the city.
“Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“Therefore, the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls.”
Ms Maliar added that Ukrainian troops are still defending industrial and infrastructure facilities in Bakhmut as well as a private sector of the city.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday congratulated Wagner and the Russian army for what he called the “liberation” of Bakhmut, which Russia calls by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk.
In a statement published on the Kremlin website, Mr Putin said that the battle 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, as well 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 (Bakhmut),” the statement said. REUTERS
