According to Volodymyr Zelensky, “The situation in Bakhmut is difficult”. However, the Ukrainian president gave no indication that the city had been invaded by the Wagner Group. He also left, in the traditional night video, a word of appreciation to the soldiers who continue to defend the positions of Avdiivka, Marinka and Bakhmut.
The leader of the Wagner Group stated, on the Telegram platform, that “in the legal sense, Bakhmut has been arrested. The enemy is concentrated in the western regions.
In a video accompanying the message, Prigozhin raised the Russian flag with an inscription in honor of Vladlen Tatarsky, a Russian military blogger and supporter of the Ukrainian offensive, who was killed in an explosion on Sunday. The attack, which took place in the historic center of St. Petersburg, injured about 30 people.
“The commanders of the units that occupied the town hall and the entire center will raise this flag,” Prigozhin added. “This is the Wagner PMC, these are the guys who captured Bakhmut. From a legal point of view, it’s ours,” he said.Bakhmut, a city that had a population of about 70,000 before the Russian invasion, has been the scene of fighting for months. Because of the duration of the battle and the heavy losses suffered by both sides, the city has become a symbol of the struggle between the Russians and the Ukrainians for control of the industrial Donbass region.
Hours earlier, the Ukrainian defense claimed the opposite. He added, “The enemy did not stop its attack on Bakhmut. The Ukrainian General Staff said on the social network Facebook on Sunday evening that the Ukrainian defenders bravely took control of the city and repelled many enemy attacks.
According to Reuters, Ukrainian forces prevented 25 enemy attacks, but Russian forces occupied the Azum metallurgical plant.
In recent months, Russian forces have been advancing north and south of the city, cutting off several Ukrainian supply routes, while holding the eastern part. On March 20, Yevgeny Prigozhin had already stated that the Wagner Group controlled 70 percent of Bakhmut.
Despite the claim by many allies and analysts that Ukrainian forces should abandon Pakhmut, the Ukrainian president refuses to hand over the city that has become a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion, despite the fact that, in his Sunday evening speech, he acknowledged it. The situation in Bakhmut was difficult for the country’s troops.
“The situation in Bakhmut is tense.”
On Monday, the Ukrainian military said that Bakhmut and other locations, including Avdiivka, were at the “centre” of the fighting.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar had already described the situation in Bakhmut as “tense”, stressing that Kiev forces were defending their positions.
“The situation in Bakhmut is tense. But every military decision and every step is carefully evaluated. We responded appropriately to the situation, taking into account all circumstances, missions and the principle of military feasibility,” Maler wrote on the Telegram network.
In Kostyantynivka, another town in eastern Ukraine, about 20 kilometers from Bakhmut, Russian bombing killed six civilians.
On Monday, the Ukrainian state radio, Sosplan, revealed that during the past 24 hours, Russian forces bombed 16 locations in the Zaporizhia region, one of the Ukrainian regions partially occupied by the Russian Federation.
w/ agencies
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