Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Sunday that Russian troops were not occupying Bakhmut, despite the fact that Kyiv’s military no longer has full control of the city.
Moscow’s allegations that the eastern Ukrainian city had fallen are refuted by Zelensky’s statement in Hiroshima, Japan, where he is visiting members of the G7 for their annual conference.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Wagner organization mercenaries and regular soldiers on Saturday for their successful operation to “liberate” the town.
According to the AP, this seemed to contradict the president’s earlier response in English to a query on the state of Bakhmut, which many took to mean that the city had really surrendered to Russian forces.
For the time being, Bakhmut exists only in our thoughts. Zelensky had previously stated, “There is nothing in this place,” adding that the battle had left behind nothing in Bakhmut except for a large number of “dead Russians.”
Zelensky’s press secretary later retracted similar remarks, while Serhii Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, claimed Ukrainian forces are maintaining positions near Bakhmut.
The city has been completely destroyed, as the president stated. Every day, our forces report that the enemy is being annihilated by heavy artillery and aviation strikes.
Our armed forces maintain a stronghold and a number of buildings in the city’s southwestern quadrant. There’s been heavy fighting, he said.