The endless battle for control of Bakhmut has led to a crossover of statements this Saturday between both parties for claiming control of the Donetsk region. And while the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgueni Prigozhin, has announced the seizure of the Ukrainian city by his army of mercenaries at the service of Moscow, the Ukrainian army has denied it, assuring that its troops continue to fight and that, therefore, They hold positions.
The first version came from Prigozhin, who reported through a video posted on his Telegram account that "the last redoubt in the Samoliot neighborhood" had fallen, ending 244 days of attacks.
Prigozhin has mocked the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who are participating this weekend in the meeting of the G7 leaders held in Japan. "Today, when you see Biden, kiss him on the top of his head, say hello for me," said the leader of the Wagner Group.
Despite this, Prigozhin himself has recently recognized that Bakhmut, a city that before the war was inhabited by about 70,000 inhabitants, "had no strategic importance, although it has acquired great symbolic importance for both sides due to the great intensity of the fighting and the magnitude of the losses.
Although the Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi has not been slow to refute it, denying through Reuters any defeat or setback: "This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut."
The Ukrainian army, in fact, claimed on Thursday to have made new territorial gains in eastern Ukraine despite having fewer soldiers and weapons than Russian forces. "Despite the fact that our units have no advantage in equipment (...) and personnel, they have continued to advance on the (Russian) flanks and have covered a distance of between 150 and 1,700 meters," Cherevatyi said in televised remarks.
