Kyiv says forces still 'hold' Bakhmut despite Russia's capture claims

Kyiv insists its forces still ‘hold’ Bakhmut after Putin’s Wagner mercenaries tried to claim they had captured key Ukrainian city after 10 months of hellish WW1-style trench warfare

• Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Russian troops captured the town ‘in a legal sense’
• Ukraine said the Bakhmut situation was ‘particularly hot’ but it still holds the city

Ukraine says its army still holds Bakhmut after the head of Russia’s Wagner private military company claimed the capture of the town ‘in a legal sense’.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Vladimir Putin’s Wagner mercenaries, claimed on Monday that troops had raised a Russian flag on the administrative building in the eastern Ukrainian city.

For ten ‘hellish’ months, Kyiv’s armed forces have been fighting in sodden trenches and bravely holding back an onslaught from Russia’s military.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the situation in Bakhmut on Sunday, said the military situation was ‘particularly hot’ around Bakhmut, with no letup in a months-long drive to seize the city. 

Prigozhin has previously made claims that were premature.

Ukraine says its army still holds Bakhmut after the head of Russia’s Wagner private military company claimed the capture of the town ‘in a legal sense’. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier wades through knee-high water in a trench close to Bakhmut, Ukraine last month

The founder of Vladimir Putin’s Wagner mercenaries claimed on Monday that troops had raised a Russian flag on the administrative building in the city. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers fire a self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Bakhmut last month

Prigozhin on Monday claimed the capture of the east Ukraine town of Bakhmut, saying his units had taken the main city administration building.

‘In a legal sense, Bakhmut has been captured. The enemy is concentrated in western areas,’ the military leader said on his Telegram channel in a post.

In a video accompanying the post, Prigozhin could be seen holding a Russian flag inscribed in honour of Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed in a bomb attack in a cafe in Saint Petersburg on Sunday.

‘The commanders of the units that took city hall and the whole centre will go and put up this flag,’ he said.

‘This is the Wagner private military company, these are the guys who took Bakhmut. In a legal sense, it’s ours.’

But there has been no indication from Ukrainian officials that Bakhmut had fallen into Russian hands. 

Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said: ‘Thank you to our soldiers who are fighting in Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Bakhmut. Especially Bakhmut. It is especially hot there.’

For ten ‘hellish’ months, Kyiv ‘s armed forces have been fighting in sodden trenches and bravely holding back an onslaught from Russia’s military. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery at Russian positions near Bakhmut in November 2022

President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the situation in Bakhmut on Sunday, said the military situation was ‘particularly hot’ around Bakhmut, with no letup in a months-long drive to seize the city. Pictured: Ukrainian troops in the trenches in Bakhmut last year 

A senior Ukrainian official had earlier described the situation around the town as ‘tense,’ with the military command carefully considering every move.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces were continuing to defend their positions, with Russian forces paying scant attention to their losses as they mounted attacks.

‘The situation in Bakhmut remains tense,’ Maliar said on Telegram.

‘But every military decision and every step is weighed carefully … We respond to the prevailing situation appropriately, taking into account all circumstances, tasks and the principle of military feasibility.’

The fight for Bakhmut is the longest battle of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. 

Zelensky and military commanders agreed last month to maintain the defence of Bakhmut amid public debate over whether it was best to remain or adopt other defensive positions.

Russian forces have for months been trying to encircle and capture Bakhmut, a town of 70,000 before the Russian invasion launched over a year ago. 

On March 20, Prigozhin had claimed Wagner units controlled 70 percent of the town.

Prominent Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on Monday that fighting has engulfed the city centre. 

Ukrainian forces had repelled 25 enemy attacks, but Russian forces had captured the AZOM metal plant, which Ukrainian troops had defended for days.

‘The enemy is attacking the city centre from the north, the east and the south and is trying to take the city under its full control,’ Zhdanov, who has close ties to the Ukrainian military, said in a video shown on YouTube.

A senior Ukrainian official had earlier described the situation around the town as ‘tense,’ with the military command carefully considering every move. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier is seen at his artillery position in the direction of Bakhmut frontline over the weekend

Ukrainian forces have continued to defend their positions, with Russian forces paying scant attention to their losses as they mounted attacks: Military medics carry a soldier wounded in a battle to an evacuation vehicle near Bakhmut in February 2022

‘In some places, we have been successful and in some places we have even staged counter-attacks. But the enemy on occasion registers some success in view of the number of its forces and the number of its daily attacks.’

Another military analyst, Yuri Butusov, said Ukraine was hampered by a lack of defensive planning, particularly near Avdiivka, a second town under attack in Donetsk region.

‘We still lack planning in terms of building stationary, well-considered, well-defended defensive positions,’ Butusov said in a weekend interview with Ukrainian NV Radio. ‘This is the nature of the crisis near Avdiivka and in other areas of the front. The enemy is knocking out one position after another. And there is no rear position.’

In his video address, Zelensky also said that two people had died in a Russian mortar attack near the town of Konotop in the northern region of Sumy.

He noted earlier reports that Russian shelling had killed six people in the city of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Eleven people were injured.

Kyiv’s armed forces had been bravely holding back an onslaught from Russia’s military and Wagner mercenaries for ten months.

Moscow sent thousands into the maw of Ukrainian machine guns, with troops charging across a muddy hell-scape strewn with the corpses of their own comrades and into Kyiv’s trenches.

The frontlines barely shifted, but last month Moscow finally started to make gains and experts predicted it was only a matter of time before Putin would take control of the city.

The fight for Bakhmut is the longest battle of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers of the 80th Brigade clean the snow at their artillery position in the direction of Bakhmut frontline on Saturday

Kyiv ‘s armed forces had been bravely holding back an onslaught from Russia’s military and Wagner mercenaries for ten months. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier at his artillery position over the weekend

Analysts say the fighting in Bakhmut is hauntingly reminiscent of the First World War’s most brutal battles. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers on the Bakhmut frontline over the weekend

Analysts say the fighting in Bakhmut is hauntingly reminiscent of the First World War’s most brutal battles, when the Allies and German Empire sent wave after wave of soldiers against each other’s trenches and machine guns, losing thousands of troops for each marginal gain. 

Both sides were forced to fight in mud – sometimes chest deep – and slog across open fields under withering fire for months. 

As is the case around Bakhmut, the conditions were brutal, and the battle symbolised the mud, chaos and senseless slaughter on a mass scale on the Western Front. 

Britain, France and Belgium won the battle, but at the cost of an estimated 300,000 casualties, only to cede back the territory the following year without firing a shot. 

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