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Head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin on Tuesday said that the forces have captured more than 80 per cent of Bakhmut, the war-torn eastern city of Ukraine, after some of the bloodiest fighting.
The claims were not addressed directly by some senior Ukrainian military officials, however, they said that their forces have been holding firm against Russia’s fierce attacks on the city, which once was populated by 70,000 people, and keeping the Russian forces in check.
For months, Russia’s Wagner fighters have been making efforts to capture Bakhmut. The constant artillery barrages and grinding trench warfare have been compared to World War 1 because of the huge casualties inflicted on the two sides.
Prigozhin said that the Wagner’s forces, who had a major role to play in Russian advances in the east, were constantly pressing on their forces’ encirclement of Bakhmut.
“In Bakhmut, the larger part, more than 80% is now under our control, including the whole administrative centre, factories, warehouses, the administration of the city,” he stated in a video shared by a Russian military blogger.
The Russian-installed head of the Donetsk region Denis Pushilin said that Ukrainian defenders were backed by the Russian forces into a corner.
Donetsk was among the four areas which Russia had declared to have annexed last September.
“In the western areas where their units are dug in, they have no choice other than coming forward and giving themselves up,” Denis Pushilin was quoted as telling state television by the Russian news agencies.
Ukraine’s Eastern Military Command spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi said that the situation in Bakhmut has remained under control, adding that Kyiv won’t allow the Russian army to encircle its troops.
Deputy Ukrainian Defence Minister Hanna Malyar accepted that Bakhmut “took the main hit” in intense fighting. However, Russian forces, she stated, “are generally losing to us in street battles so they are simply destroying all buildings and structures”.
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Kyiv said that it requires more and better quality Western weapons to defeat Russia, as the senior Ukrainian officials emphasised on persuading the allies to open up stockpiles.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already given assurance of “ironclad” US support.
Prigozhin has previously claimed about Russia gaining control over the mining city which turned out to be premature, but Ukraine accepts that the situation in “fortress Bakhmut” is now very difficult.
(With inputs from agencies)
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