Putin claims Bakhmut capture as Ukraine insists battle ‘is not over’

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Vladimir Putin hailed his first major victory since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, saying Russian forces had captured the eastern town of Bakhmut as Kiev insisted the battle ‘is not over’ .

The Russian president said the paramilitary group Wagner seized the Ukrainian city with the help of Russian armed forces after a months-long bloody battle that claimed more than 100,000 lives and reduced the city to rubble.

“All who have distinguished themselves will be nominated for state awards,” the Kremlin said in a statement released overnight Sunday.

But Russian claims that the city had fallen have been flatly denied by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president. “Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation so far,” he said at the G7 summit of advanced economies in Japan.

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The Battle of Bakhmut was the longest and bloodiest in Ukraine since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022. Heavy fighting erupted there last May, but intensified in the fall and winter .

It was not immediately clear if Russia had captured the entire city. The Ukrainian military said fighting continued in the western outskirts of Bakhmut and Kiev’s counterattacks against Russian forces continued on the northern and southern flanks, where they gained about 10 square miles of territory over the course of of last week.

While stressing that control of the city was still disputed, Zelenskyy argued that any victory would be Pyrrhic anyway.

“You have to understand, there is nothing. They destroyed everything. There are no buildings,” Zelenskyy said. “It’s a pity, it’s a tragedy but for today Bakhmut is only in our hearts. . . There’s only ground and a lot of dead Russians. But they came to us.

Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said Russia had lost ground in the commanding heights around the city, leaving its forces vulnerable. “The advance of our troops. . . makes it very difficult for the enemy to stay in Bakhmut,” she said on Sunday. “Our troops have taken the city in semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy.”

The headquarters was run by caterer-turned-warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner, who has been embroiled in a bitter public dispute over supplies with the Russian general staff for most of this year. He said on Saturday that his group had captured Bakhmut without any significant support from the regular armed forces.

Prigozhin recorded his video outside Bakhmut railway station, more than three kilometers from the western front of the city he claimed to have captured. Artillery fire was still audible nearby.

The Ukrainian army denied that Russia had taken control of the city. “During the past 24 hours, the enemy has carried out unsuccessful attacks,” the Ukrainian military said on Sunday. “The battle for the city of Bakhmut is not over.”

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a military spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Command, told the Financial Times by telephone on Saturday that while Russian forces controlled most of Bakhmut, heavy fighting was still going on in Chaikovskoho Street, a road main road leading into town, and a handful of blocks. along its western and northwestern edge.

Wagner had not established full control of Bakhmut, he insisted, despite Prigozhin’s claims. Cherevatyi argued that during the battle “the Ukrainian army smashed Wagner”.

Although of little strategic value, Bakhmut is the first major prize for Russia after the invasion began to stall last year.

Bakhmut was the centerpiece of an offensive, led by Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, aimed at reversing embarrassing withdrawals late last year from areas Putin had tried to annex to Russia a few weeks ago.

Prigozhin described him as “Bakhmut’s meat grinder”, which he said was an attempt to inflict devastating casualties on the Ukrainian Armed Forces and sap their strength for the coming counter-offensive.

Zelenskyy justified Ukraine’s months-long stand in Bakhmut, even as the town was pulverized by heavy artillery and airstrikes, arguing that fighting there would exhaust Russian forces. Kiev also warned that the retreat would open the door for Putin’s army to push further into Donetsk province, one of four the Kremlin claimed it annexed in September.

During months of extraordinary public infighting, Prigozhin issued a series of rants condemning Russian army leaders, claiming that Wagner’s forces were being deliberately starved of much-needed artillery shells at Bakhmut.

In his Bakhmut video over the weekend, Prigozhin personally thanked two prominent – ​​and recently demoted – generals who he said played key roles in helping Wagner despite what he called the “ammunition starvation”.

Prigozhin also said Wagner would leave Bakhmut later this week, leaving the Russian military to defend the city against an upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive that has already sent invading forces back to the city’s outskirts.