Kiev (EFE).- Uncertainty surrounds the fate of the city of Bakhmut, in the Donestk region: while the group of Wagner mercenaries affirm that they have occupied the central district and the administration, the Ukrainians assure that the Russians “continue trying to take control” of the city.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has acknowledged in its daily war report that Russian forces are “attempting to seize full control” of Bakhmut, a rare reference in official Kiev notes to the possibility of Russia’s complete conquest. this city in eastern Ukraine.
“The enemy does not stop attacking (the city of) Bakhmut, trying to gain total control” of the municipality, read the note from the General Staff, published shortly after 6 am this Monday (4.00 GMT) in its Facebook account.
Hours earlier, Yevgueni Progozhin, head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, which is leading the Russian assaults to take the city, assured in a video released by his press service that his men had taken control of the central neighborhood and the administration of Bakhmut.
“April 2, 23 hours on the dot. Legally we have taken Bakhmut. The commanders of the units that seized the administration and the central neighborhood will now raise those flags (the Russian and the paramilitary group),” Prigozhin said.
Tribute to murdered Russian blogger
According to the Wagner leader, that Russian flag would carry a message in memory of Vladlen Tatarski, a Russian blogger and war correspondent killed on Sunday in a bomb attack in St. Petersburg that also injured some 30 people.
However, according to Prigozhin, the Ukrainian forces still remain in the western neighborhood of Bakhmut, which has become the epicenter of the fighting for months.
In his usual speech at night, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, thanked the troops defending Bakhmut as every day, about whose situation he recognized had been “particularly tense” on Sunday.
Bakhmut has been, for months, the segment of the entire Ukrainian front where the hardest fighting takes place.
Russia wants to take the city to continue its advance from the east, while Ukraine resists to stop this offensive and wear down the enemy in this battle.