"On May 20, 2023, today, at noon, Bakhmut was taken in its entirety." On Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, claimed full capture of this city in eastern Ukraine, the epicenter of fighting since last summer. A few minutes later, Kiev denied it and still claims to fight. "Our defenders control some industrial facilities and infrastructure in the area as well as in the private sector," Ganna Malia, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, said on Telegram, while acknowledging that the situation on the ground is "critical."
If confirmed, the capture of Bakhmut would allow Moscow to post a victory after a series of humiliating setbacks. It would also intervene before a major counter-offensive that Kiev has been preparing for months. The announcement of the boss of Wagner also comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where he meets to increase international pressure on Moscow.
See alsoWar in Ukraine: 5 minutes to understand why Russian diamonds are targeted by the G7
The longest and deadliest battle of the conflict
"The operation to take Bakhmut lasted 224 days (...) There was only Wagner here," Prigozhin said in a video released by his press service on Telegram, "but no regular troops of the Russian army," he added, while he is in open conflict with the military hierarchy in Moscow. According to him, Wagner will withdraw his men from the city from May 25 and leave the defense to the regular Russian army, being available after rotation and training for future Moscow operations. Until then, "we will search the city completely, create defensive positions and transfer it to the military to take care of. On our side, we will go back to the bases," he said.
Both sides suffered heavy casualties in Bakhmut, a town of some 70,000 before the Russian offensive, now largely devastated by fighting. Russian forces there advanced slowly while taking nearby towns such as Soledar further north. In recent weeks, they controlled Bakhmut at more than 90%, fighting within the city only against a last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the West.
Ukraine, however, claimed this week the capture of more than twenty square kilometers from Russian forces north and south of the city, endangering Wagner's flanks, which are held by regular Russian army troops.
Russian soldiers accused of fleeing their positions
Yevgeny Prigozhin accused Russian army soldiers of fleeing their positions near Bakhmut, while claiming that the General Staff was not providing enough ammunition to his men on purpose to weaken his group. "We have not only fought with the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut, but also with the Russian bureaucracy that has put obstacles in our way," he said Saturday. Again fiercely criticizing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, he estimated that five times as many men had died in Bakhmut "because of their whims." "They will answer for their actions," said the boss of Wagner.
Russia, which launched its troops to assault Ukraine on February 24, 2022, suffered serious setbacks on the front, being forced in turn to withdraw from the vicinity of Kiev, then from the Kharkiv region in the northeast and the city of Kherson in the south. The front was essentially fixed throughout the winter, with most of the fighting taking place in Bakhmut. Both sides are now waiting for a large-scale counter-offensive announced by the Ukrainian authorities, on the strength of Western arms deliveries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said recently that his army "needs more time" to prepare for the assault.