On Sunday, Ukraine said its forces continued to advance along the outskirts of Bakhmut, seeking to encircle the ruined town after Moscow praised the Wagner PMC and Russian regular troops for taking it.
On Saturday, Russia said it had completely captured the city.
However, on Sunday, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrsky, said his troops still controlled what he called a “minor” part of Bakhmut, which would allow them to enter the city when the situation. would change.
Syrsky reported on Telegram that Ukrainian troops are advancing on Russian forces in the suburbs and are closing in on the “tactical encirclement” of the city.
Syrsky said on Sunday he visited forward positions in the Bakhmut region and thanked the troops protecting him.
Syrsky’s claim that Ukrainian troops continue to advance along the city’s flanks was confirmed by Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar.
“Our troops took the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy…the enemy, in the part of the city he controls, must defend himself,” said Malyar in Telegram, adding that Ukrainian troops continue to defend industrial and infrastructure objects and have captured part of the hills.
President Joe Biden said Russia had lost more than 100,000 people in Bakhmut, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared the city’s devastation to the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in Japan during the Second World War.
“I’ll tell you bluntly: the photographs of destroyed Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. There is nothing alive, all the buildings are destroyed, he said, attending the G7 summit in Japan on Sunday. – To date, Bakhmut has not been captured by the Russian Federation. There are not two or three interpretations here.
Zelenskyy, whom President Joe Biden met in Hiroshima, said he was confident the West would supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.
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