Ukraine mocks Russian claim that it has captured Bakhmut
• Wagner mercenaries still assaulting the city, but its defenders are holding out, Ukrainian military says
Ukraine’s military said its troops were locked in combat with Russian forces around the administration building of Bakhmut on Monday, and it poured scorn on Russian claims that mercenary fighters had captured the eastern city after months of warfare.
A Ukrainian spokesperson said the Russians raised a victory flag not over the building, but over “some kind of toilet”.
In Moscow, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of being behind a bomb blast at a cafe in St Petersburg on Sunday that killed a prominent Russian pro-war blogger. Russia said it had arrested a woman.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the assassination of Vladlen Tatarsky “a terrorist act” and cited Russia’s antiterrorism committee in saying that there is evidence linking Ukraine to the bombing.
FROM A LEGAL POINT OF VIEW, BAKHMUT HAS BEEN TAKEN. THE ENEMY IS CONCENTRATED IN THE WESTERN PARTS
Yevgeny Prigozhin Head of Wagner
BAKHMUT IS UKRAINIAN AND THEY HAVE NOT CAPTURED ANYTHING AND ARE VERY FAR FROM DOING THAT, TO PUT IT MILDLY
Serhiy Cherevatiy Military spokesperson
Ukraine has not commented on Peskov’s suggestion, but Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was only a matter of time —“like the bursting of a ripe abscess ”— before Russia becomes consumed by what he called domestic terrorism.
The battle for Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the conflict, now in its second year, with many casualties on both sides and much of the eastern city destroyed by bombardments. Front lines have shifted backwards and forwards in street-by-street fighting.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary force, which has spearheaded the Kremlin’s campaign to encircle and capture Bakhmut, said on Sunday his troops had raised a Russian flag on the administrative building in the city centre. He acknowledged that Ukrainian troops were still holding some positions, but said in a video posted on Telegram: “From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy is concentrated in the western parts.”
The Ukrainian military said on Monday, however, that fighting was still going on in Bakhmut as well as in several other towns. Prigozhin has made premature claims before.
Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesperson for the eastern military command, said the Russian claim was false. Clashes were taking place around the city council building, he said.
“Bakhmut is Ukrainian and they have not captured anything and are very far from doing that, to put it mildly,” he said.
“They raised the flag over some kind of toilet. They attached it to the side of who knows what, hung their rag and said they had captured the city. Well good, let them think they’ve taken it,” Cherevatyi said.
Earlier the Ukrainian military said the Russians were assaulting the city, but its defenders were courageously holding on.
In his Sunday night video address, Zelensky thanked the soldiers fighting in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka.
“Especially Bakhmut. It is especially hot there,” he said.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting had engulfed the centre of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces repelled 25 enemy attacks, but Russian forces captured the Azom metal plant, he said. “The enemy is attacking the city centre from the north, the east and the south and is trying to take the city under its full control,” Zhdanov said in a video on YouTube.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
A mining city and logistics hub on the edge of a chunk of Donetsk province under Russian control, Bakhmut had a population of 70,000 before Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian forces, bogged down in a war of attrition after a series of setbacks, are seeking a victory to give new momentum to a winter offensive, but they have suffered huge casualties in the battle for Bakhmut.
Ukrainian military commanders have said their counteroffensive — backed by newly delivered Western tanks and other hardware — is not far off, but they have stressed the importance of holding Bakhmut and inflicting losses on their enemy in the meantime.
Russia claims Kyiv’s ties to the West pose a security threat. Kyiv and the West call the war an unprovoked assault to subdue an independent country. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed in the invasion.
Moscow’s ambassador to Minsk said on Sunday Russia was to move nuclear weapons close to the western borders of Belarus — a step that would place them at Nato’s threshold.
The weapons “will increase the possibilities to ensure security”, ambassador Boris Gryzlov told Belarusian state television. “This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the US.”
In warnings to the West against arming Ukraine, Russian officials increasingly play up the risks of nuclear weapons being used in the war, and in March, said they would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus.
Bloomberg reports that Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, arrived in Kyiv on Monday with a small delegation of business representatives to demonstrate his nation’s commitment to help rebuild Ukraine.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested by Russia last week and charged with spying.