Kiev, we keep a small part of Bakhmut, but advance to the sides

(ANSA) - KIEV, MAY 21 - The commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said that his troops still control only an "insignificant" portion of Bakhmut, of which the Russian mercenaries of Wagner claim capture, but are advancing on the flanks.
"Although we now control only an insignificant part of Bakhmut, the importance of defending it remains current. We continue to advance on the flanks on the outskirts of Bakhmut," the commander said.
Shortly before, the spokesman for the eastern group of Ukrainian armed forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, quoted by RBC-Ukraine, said that "the Ukrainian army does not rule out that the armed forces may withdraw from Bakhmut". "The withdrawal from the city or its defense will be decided only taking into account the opportunity and preserving our forces and means. Various options are possible, but this remains only to the evaluation of the command, which for more than a year of war has shown that it always makes the right decisions," said Cherevaty.
On the Russian side, the founder and commander of the Wagner mercenary battalion, oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, downplayed the role of the Russian regular army in the claimed capture of Bakhmut, in a voice message published on Telegram quoted by Sky News. Prigozhin added that during the capture of Bakhmut practically no one from the army helped them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from the G7 summit in Hiroshima said, responding to a question at the summit's final press conference: "To date, Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation: there are no two or three interpretations of these words." (ANSA).