Has Russia really captured Bakhmut? Ukraine denies private military group Wagner’s claims

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of the Russian private military company Wagner, stated on Saturday that, following months of bloody combat, his troops now completely control the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

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“The operation to capture Bakhmut lasted 224 days,” he said in a video posted to Telegram, seeking to claim a final victory in the city. In the video, Prigozhin stated that his troops would leave Bakhmut on May 25 for rest and retraining before turning over command to the regular Russian army. In the background, explosions could be heard.

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However, the Ukrainian military asserted on Saturday that its soldiers were still engaged in combat in Bakhmut, a destroyed city in the country’s east, and denied that the Wagner private military unit had taken complete control of the area. “This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut,” military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Reuters.

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Less than an hour after the Russian mercenary’s claim went public, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged the situation in Bakhmut was “critical” but claimed Ukrainian troops were still “holding the defense” in a neighborhood on Bakhmut’s westernmost edge.

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“As of now, our defenders control certain industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area and the private sector,” she said.

Over the past two weeks, Ukrainian forces have been able to retake a few small pockets of territory held by Russian forces to the northwest and southwest of the city, where Russian forces have been advancing slowly street by street for many months.

In their attempt to take the city, Russian forces, supported by mercenaries from the Wagner group, have suffered significant losses. There are no official death toll statistics, but a NATO source told CNN earlier this year that they believed Russia lost five soldiers for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut.