by India Today World DeskRussia claimed to have fully captured the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Saturday, marking the end of the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war, news agency Reuters reported.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner’s group of mercenaries, said that his troops eventually forced the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city.
“Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said in a video, in which he appeared in battle fatigues in front of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners. “We took the whole town door to door.”
Domestic Russian news agencies reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the troops on capturing Bakhmut and said that those who distinguished themselves would be rewarded.
The claims came after a week in which the Ukrainian army made its fastest advance for six months on the northern and southern banks of the Bakhmut.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged in a Telegram post less than an hour after the Russian mercenary claim was published that the situation in Bakhmut was “serious”, but said that Ukrainian troops were still in the western district of Bakhmut. were “protecting”. Most cutting edge, CNN reported.
“Until now, our protectorates control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the region and the private sector,” Hanna said.
Responding to Prigozhin’s comments, Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty told Reuters, “This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”
The Battle of Bakhmut revealed a deep division between Wagner, a mercenary force recruited by thousands of convicts from Russian prisons, and the regular Russian army. For two weeks, Prigozhin has been releasing daily video and audio messages denouncing Russia’s military leadership, often in profanity.
Moscow has long claimed that the capture of Bakhmut would be a step towards advancing deeper into the Donbass region, which it claims it annexed from Ukraine. This made it the prime target of a large-scale invasion that failed to capture any other important ground.