After Moscow hailed the Wagner private army and Russian troops for seizing Bakhmut, Ukraine stated on Sunday that its forces were still pushing to envelop the destroyed eastern city.

Russia claimed to have seized Bakhmut on Saturday, ending the 15-month war’s longest and bloodiest fight. Putin lauded his troops and Wagner.
On Sunday, a top Ukrainian general said Kyiv’s forces still controlled an “insignificant” sector of Bakhmut, which would allow them to enter the city should the circumstances altered.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi posted on Telegram claimed Kyiv’s troops were moving on Russian forces in the outskirts and approaching a “tactical encirclement” of the city of 70,000.

On Sunday, Syrskyi, Ukraine’s ground forces commander, visited Bakhmut’s front lines. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar agreed with Syrskyi that Ukrainian forces were advancing along the city’s sides.
“Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy… the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls,” Maliar stated on Telegram.

Maliar said Ukrainian troops were guarding industrial and infrastructural installations and had claimed part of the overlooking heights.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian offensive surrounding Bakhmut has continued for 24 hours, including air strikes on the city and Ivanivske on its western approaches.

In an audio message on Telegram later Sunday, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin declared his group’s duty was done, and his forces would leave the battle zone within days.

Wagner took no territory today. “We captured every centimetre,” Prigozhin stated. “We stated yesterday. We’re handing over our locations to Russia’s Defence Ministry and departing the war zone on May 25.”

Military specialists say Bakhmut has minimal strategic worth, but Moscow argues that conquering it will help it expand into Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region.

Reuters couldn’t corroborate either side’s combat reports.

Ukraine has made its fastest gains in six months on Bakhmut’s northern and southern sides in the past week, with Russia recognizing minor setbacks.

Kyiv says its goal has been to pull Russian forces from elsewhere on the front into the city, inflicting heavy casualties, and undermine Moscow’s defensive line ahead of a big Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy compared Bakhmut’s destruction to the U.S. World War Two atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

I’ll admit it: Ruined Hiroshima photos remind me of Bakhmut and other comparable towns. “Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined,” he remarked at a Group of Seven summit in Japan on Sunday.

Today, Russia has not captured Bakhmut. “This is unambiguous,” he told reporters.

“The world hears our position,” Zelenskiy stated in his Sunday night video speech from an airplane. Defense, security guarantees, return of all our areas and people, justice, peace plan execution.”

In over ten months, Moscow’s first major win would be taking Bakhmut, also known as Artyomovsk.

Wagner, which has recruited thousands of Russian prisoners, and the regular Russian military are increasingly at odds over Bakhmut. Prigozhin has posted daily videos and audio messages criticizing Russia’s military leadership for two weeks, often with profanity.

The G7 leaders pledged to help Ukraine.

Zelenskiy, who met privately with Biden in Hiroshima, said he was convinced Kyiv would obtain F-16 fighter fighters from the West after months of lobbying.

Biden stated F-16s would not have helped Ukrainian forces combat Bakhmut but may “make a big difference in terms of being able to deal with what is coming down the road.”