“Russian Wagner Group claims control of Bakhmut, Kiev denies and calls situation embarrassing”

The head of the Russian Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced on Saturday that the city of Bakhmut had fallen into the hands of his forces, while Kiev denied the news, and Hana Malyar, the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, described Saturday the situation in the city, which is witnessing the fiercest and bloodiest battles since the Russian invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago, as embarrassing. Very, with Ukrainian forces continuing to defend the southwestern part of the city. There has been no official confirmation yet, either from the Ukrainian side or the Russian side, of what Prigozhin said. Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced again the existence of battles in the city. “This is not true,” Ukrainian army spokesman Serhiy Chervaty said in an interview with Reuters. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”

“The operation to take control of Bakhmut took 224 days… Wagner alone was here,” said Prigozhin, who is locked in a dispute with the Russian military leadership.

Ukraine announced this week that it had regained more than twenty square kilometers from the Russian forces in the north and south of the city, while acknowledging the progress of Wagner’s fighters inside the city itself, as only a small pocket of Ukrainian resistance remained in the west.

And the areas of advance of the Ukrainians near Bakhmut are controlled by the Russian regular forces. Prigozhin intensified his criticism of her, accusing her of fleeing from her positions, and blamed the General Staff for not providing his fighters with enough ammunition.

And Prigozhin continued, on Saturday: “We did not fight only the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut, but also the Russian bureaucracy, which put sticks in our wheels.”

The city represents the main part of the defense line that was established between the cities of Seversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region after the Russian invasion of the Severodonetsk and Leschansk regions. It should be noted that if the fall of Bakhmut is confirmed, the road to the two large cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk will be open to the Russian forces, which will bring Russia closer to achieving what it plans to fully take over the Donetsk region.

Prigozhin announced full control of the Ukrainian city in a video clip in which he appeared in combat uniform in front of a row of fighters carrying Russian flags and banners of the Special Military Group. “Today, at 12 noon, we took full control of Bakhmut,” Prigozhin added. “We have completely controlled the entire city, from house to house,” he added. The sound of explosions can be heard from far away during Prigojen’s speech in the video clip.

Maliar wrote on the “Telegram” application: “Violent fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical.” She added, “Our defenders currently control some industrial facilities and infrastructure facilities in the region and the private sector.” She said the fighting was still going on. The Ukrainian armed forces indicated that they were able, despite the numerical superiority of the Russian attackers, to hit the enemy in important locations and annihilate the invaders.

It is noteworthy that the city of Bakhmut was destroyed on a large scale due to the battle that has been going on there for about 15 months, and it inflicted the largest number of losses so far. Ukraine is trying not to abandon the contested city to prevent Russian forces from penetrating more of the Ukrainian interior.

Prigozhin said that his forces would withdraw from Bakhmut, starting on May 25, to rest and retrain, and to hand over control of the city to the Russian army.

Prigozhin mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Joe Biden, who are participating in the G7 summit in Japan on Saturday, which focused on the war in Ukraine. Addressing Zelensky, he said, “Today, when you see Biden, kiss him on the forehead and say hello to him.” He repeated his criticism of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

If confirmed, control of Bakhmut would allow Moscow to declare victory after many humiliating setbacks.

In a related field context, the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses once again shot down several combat drones during a Russian attack that took place last night on the capital, Kiev. It was the 11th time this month that Russia attacked the city. Authorities in Kiev said Saturday morning that falling debris from the drones damaged two residential buildings, cars and road surfaces. The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that a total of 20 drones were destroyed across the country. “Last night, the enemy launched another large-scale attack with drones, but all of them did not cause any damage,” said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kiev military administration. He added that the attack did not result in casualties. He added that the wreckage of a downed drone led to a fire in one of the houses, which was then extinguished, while windows were shattered in another house.