Russia says Wagner private army, with help from Russian troops, seized Bakhmut

Russia’s defense ministry mentioned early Sunday that forces of the Wagner non-public military, with the assist of Russian troops, seized the Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut.

The ministry assertion on the Telegram channel took place eight hours after the same declare by Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. Ukrainian authorities at the moment mentioned combating for Bakhmut was persevering with.

The eight-month battle for the town in japanese Ukraine is the longest and possibly most bloody of the battle in Ukraine.

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Utilizing the town’s Soviet-era title, the Russian ministry mentioned, “Within the Artyomovsk tactical route, the assault groups of the Wagner non-public navy firm with the assist of artillery and aviation of the southern battlegroup has accomplished the liberation of the town of Artyomovsk.”

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials in regards to the newest declare.

In a video posted earlier on Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned the town got here beneath full Russian management at about noon Saturday. He spoke flanked by a couple of half dozen fighters, with ruined buildings within the background and explosions heard within the distance.

Ukrainian troopers fireplace a cannon close to Bakhmut, an japanese metropolis the place fierce battles towards Russian forces have been going down, within the Donetsk area, Ukraine, Might 15, 2023. For months, Western allies have shipped billions of {dollars} price of weapons programs and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the provides to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Now summer season is simply weeks away. Whereas Russia and Ukraine are centered on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has but to start. (AP Photograph/Libkos, File)

After the video appeared, Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s japanese command, informed The Related Press that Prigozhin’s declare “just isn’t true. Our models are combating in Bakhmut.” In a press release on Fb, the Ukrainian Normal Employees mentioned that “heavy battles for the town of Bakhmut don’t cease.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, mentioned that “this isn’t the primary time Prigozhin has mentioned ‘we seized every part and are dominating’.” He steered that the Wagner chief’s assertion was aimed toward drawing consideration away from Zelenskyy’s current extremely seen journeys abroad, together with to the Group of Seven summit in Japan on Saturday.

Fighting has raged in and round Bakhmut for greater than eight months.

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Russian forces will nonetheless face the huge activity of seizing the remaining a part of the Donetsk area nonetheless beneath Ukrainian management, together with a number of closely fortified areas.

It isn’t clear which facet has paid a better worth within the battle for Bakhmut. Each Russia and Ukraine have endured losses believed to be within the 1000’s, although neither has disclosed casualty numbers.

Zelenskyy underlined the importance of defending Bakhmut in an interview with The Related Press in March, saying its fall may enable Russia to rally worldwide assist for a deal which may require Kyiv to make unacceptable compromises.

Ukrainian troopers fireplace a cannon close to Bakhmut, an japanese metropolis the place fierce battles towards Russian forces have been going down, within the Donetsk area, Ukraine, Might 15, 2023. For months, Western allies have shipped billions of {dollars} price of weapons programs and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the provides to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Now summer season is simply weeks away. Whereas Russia and Ukraine are centered on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has but to start. (AP Photograph/Libkos)

Analysts have mentioned Bakhmut’s fall could be a blow to Ukraine and provides some tactical advantages to Russia however wouldn’t show decisive to the result of the struggle.

Russian forces nonetheless face the large activity of seizing the remainder of the Donetsk area beneath Ukrainian management, together with a number of closely fortified areas. The provinces of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk make up the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland the place a separatist rebellion started in 2014 and which Moscow illegally annexed in September.

Bakhmut, positioned about 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk, had a prewar inhabitants of 80,000 and was an vital industrial heart, surrounded by salt and gypsum mines.

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Town, which was named Artyomovsk after a Bolshevik revolutionary when Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union, additionally was identified for its glowing wine manufacturing in underground caves. Its broad tree-lined avenues, lush parks and stately downtown with imposing late nineteenth century mansions — all now lowered to a smoldering wasteland — made it a well-liked vacationer vacation spot.

When a separatist insurrection engulfed japanese Ukraine in 2014 weeks after Moscow’s unlawful annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the rebels shortly received management of the town, solely to lose it a number of months later.

After Russia switched its focus to the Donbas following a botched try and seize Kyiv early within the February 2022 invasion, Moscow’s troops tried to take Bakhmut in August however had been pushed again.

On this seize taken from video launched by Prigozhin Press Service on Saturday, Might 20, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the proprietor of the Wagner Group navy firm shakes palms together with his troopers, in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Prigozhin claims his forces have taken management of the town of Bakhmut after the longest and most grinding battle of the Russia-Ukraine struggle, however Ukrainian protection officers have denied it. In a video posted on Telegram, Prigozhin mentioned the town got here beneath full Russian management at about noon Saturday. (Prigozhin Press Service by way of AP)

The combating there abated in autumn as Russia was confronted with Ukrainian counteroffensives within the east and the south, but it surely resumed at full tempo late final yr. In January, Russia captured the salt-mining city of Soledar, simply north of Bakhmut, and closed in on the town’s suburbs.

Intense Russian shelling focused the town and close by villages as Moscow waged a three-sided assault to attempt to end off the resistance in what Ukrainians known as “fortress Bakhmut.”

Mercenaries from Wagner spearheaded the Russian offensive. Prigozhin tried to make use of the battle for the town to broaden his clout amid the tensions with the highest Russian navy leaders whom he harshly criticized.

“We fought not solely with the Ukrainian armed forces in Bakhmut. We fought the Russian paperwork, which threw sand within the wheels,” Prigozhin mentioned within the video on Saturday.

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The relentless Russian artillery bombardment left few buildings intact amid ferocious house-to-house battles. Wagner fighters “marched on the our bodies of their very own troopers” in accordance with Ukrainian officers. Either side have spent ammunition at a fee unseen in any armed battle for many years, firing 1000’s of rounds a day.

Russian Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu has mentioned that seizing the town would enable Russia to press its offensive farther into the Donetsk area, one of many 4 Ukrainian provinces that Moscow illegally annexed in September.