Wagner mercenary group chief claims forces have gained management of Bakhmut in japanese Ukraine

The head of Russian non-public military Wagner has claimed his fighters have accomplished the seize of japanese Ukrainian metropolis Bakhmut, after the longest battle of the Ukraine warfare.

Ukrainian defence officers have denied the claims made by Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video posted in the present day on the Telegram social messaging service.

He appeared in fight fatigues in entrance of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners, with ruined buildings within the background and explosions audible within the distance.

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“Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin mentioned.

“We completely took the whole city, from house to house.”

But after the video appeared, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar mentioned heavy combating was persevering with.

“The situation is critical,” she mentioned. “As of now, our defenders control certain industrial and infrastructure facilities in this area.”

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s japanese command, informed The Associated Press that Mr Prigozhin’s declare “is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut”.

For greater than 200 days combating has raged round Bakhmut, a regional transport and logistics hub within the Donetsk Oblast, a part of the largely Russian-speaking industrialised Donbas area which Moscow needs to annex.

Both Russia and Ukraine have endured losses believed to be within the 1000’s, although neither has disclosed casualty numbers, and it stays unclear which aspect has suffered there probably the most.

If Russian forces have taken management of Bakhmut, they might nonetheless face the big job of seizing the remaining a part of the Donetsk area nonetheless underneath Ukrainian management, together with a number of closely fortified areas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined the significance of defending Bakhmut in an interview with The Associated Press in March, saying its fall may enable Russia to garner worldwide assist for a deal which will require Kyiv to make unacceptable compromises.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and NATO alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg have performed down its potential fall as symbolic, as have Western navy analysts.

But if Russia has captured Bakhmut, it could convey two larger cities within the Donetsk area – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – inside simple vary of its artillery.

Moscow wants to manage each to finish what it calls its “liberation” of the “People’s Republic of Donetsk”.