Russia claims Bahmut, Ukraine denies loss

21.05.2023

The eastern Ukrainian city of Bahmut has been the site of fierce fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies for several months. Russia claims its forces and the Wagner Group have taken control of the city, though that contradicts Ukraine’s claim.

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday (May 20) that Russian troops have taken control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Bachmut is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk province, which has been the site of intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces for months. Russia controls about half of the province and claims to annex it in the fall of 2022.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated: “The Wagner Group took offensive operations with the support of the artillery and aviation of the Southern Forces. The liberation of “Artemovsk” has been completed.” “Artemovsk” was here in the Soviet era. name.

Earlier on Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner’s mercenary group, also claimed to have captured Bakhmut. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Russian military for taking control of the city, Interfax news agency reported.

However, Ukraine denied that Bakhmut was under Russian control, and Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said fierce fighting continued.

“The situation is critical. As of now, our defenders still control some industries and infrastructure in this area,” she said.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Eastern Command, told the Associated Press that the Wagner Group’s claims were not true and that Ukrainian forces continued to fight there.

“The fierce battle for control of the city of Bakhmut has not stopped,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces also said in a statement on Facebook.

War front city – Bachmut

Bakhmut is located in the industrial zone of Donbass, on the E40 highway connecting Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, with the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

More than 70,000 people live in Bakhmut before Russia invades Ukraine in early 2022. Russian forces invaded last summer and besieged the city. Since then, the two armies have had their own strengths and weaknesses here, and the bloody battle for control of the city lasted for more than nine months, falling into a deadlocked trench warfare. No other city was besieged for as long as Bakhmut, and both Ukrainian and Russian sides suffered heavy losses.

Russia’s capture of the city would continue its push further west to Ukrainian cities such as Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, key industrial and administrative centers in the Donetsk region, bringing Russia closer to Its goal of complete control of Donetsk.

(Reuters, Associated Press)

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