KYIV: Ukraine said on Sunday that its forces were still advancing around the edges of Bakhmut, aiming to encircle the ruined city after Moscow congratulated the Wagner private army and Russian troops for capturing it.
Russia said on Saturday it had completely taken the city, which, if confirmed, would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his regular troops and the Wagner group.
On Sunday, however, a top Ukrainian general said Kyiv’s forces still controlled what he accepted was an “insignificant” part of Bakhmut, although that would allow them to enter the city when the situation changed.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Telegram post that Kyiv’s troops were advancing on Russian forces in the suburbs and were getting closer to a “tactical encirclement” of the city, formerly home to 70,000 people.
Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said on Sunday he had visited front-line positions near Bakhmut and thanked troops defending the area.
Syrskyi’s assertion that Ukrainian forces were continuing their advance along the flanks of the city was echoed by Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar.
“Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy ... the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls,” Maliar said on Telegram.
Maliar added Ukrainian troops were still defending industrial and infrastructure facilities and had claimed part of the overlooking heights.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
Over the past week, Ukrainian forces have made their most rapid gains for six months on Bakhmut’s northern and southern flanks, with Russia acknowledging some setbacks for its troops.
Kyiv says its aim has been to draw Russian forces from elsewhere on the front into the city, to inflict high casualties there and weaken Moscow’s defensive line elsewhere ahead of a planned major Ukrainian counteroffensive.
US President Joe Biden said Russia had suffered more than 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut, the destruction of which Zelenskiy compared to the US World War Two atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima, in Japan.
“I’ll tell you openly: Photographs of ruined Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined,” he said as he attended a Group of Seven summit in the Japanese city on Sunday.
“Bakhmut has not been captured by the Russian Federation as of today. There are no two or three interpretations of this,” he told reporters.
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