Russia said on Saturday that it has totally taken the shattered eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, bringing the 15-month war’s longest and bloodiest fight to a close.
The Wagner Group of mercenaries led the attack on the partially flattened city, with leader Yevgeny Prigozhin saying earlier in the day that his soldiers had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the city’s last built-up section.
Taking Bakhmut, also known as Artyomovsk in Soviet times, would be Moscow’s first major success in the fight in more than ten months.
“As a result of offensive actions by Wagner assault units, supported by artillery and aviation of the Southern Group of Forces, the liberation of Artyomovsk has been completed,” the Russian defense ministry declared in a single line.
Kyiv had earlier refuted Prigozhin’s claim but had no immediate comment on the military ministry’s statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked forces for their capture of the city and said those who distinguished themselves would be recognized, according to domestic Russian news sources.
The allegations came after a week in which Ukrainian forces made their fastest progress on Bakhmut’s northern and southern sides in six months.
Prigozhin, who has regularly chastised Russia’s regular military for abandoning previously seized territory, said his forces would leave Bakhmut in five days to relax, handing over the wreckage to the regular military.
“Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said in a video, standing in military fatigues in front of a line of men brandishing Russian flags and Wagner banners. “We completely took the whole city, from house to house.”
Responding to Prigozhin’s comments before Russia’s announcement, Ukrainian military spokeswoman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Reuters: “This is not true.” Our forces are engaged in combat in Bakhmut.”
Prigozhin, who has regularly chastised Russia’s regular military for abandoning previously seized territory, said his forces would leave Bakhmut in five days to relax, handing over the wreckage to the regular military.
“Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said in a video, standing in military fatigues in front of a line of men brandishing Russian flags and Wagner banners. “We completely took the whole city, from house to house.”
Responding to Prigozhin’s comments before Russia’s announcement, Ukrainian military spokeswoman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Reuters: “This is not true.” Our forces are engaged in combat in Bakhmut.”
Wagner and Russian forces split
Whether or not Ukrainian forces have left Bakhmut, they have been progressively retreating within it, to clusters of buildings on the city’s western outskirts.
Meanwhile, they have taken large swaths of terrain from Russian troops to the north and south.
Russia has admitted losing some territory near Bakhmut in the last week, but has denied Prigozhin’s claims that regular forces’ flanks surrounding the city have collapsed.
Kyiv claims that its goal in Bakhmut has been to pull Russian forces from elsewhere on the front into the city, inflict heavy casualties, and undermine Moscow’s defensive line elsewhere ahead of a massive counteroffensive.
The war for Bakhmut has shown a growing schism between Wagner, a mercenary force made up of thousands of Russian jail inmates, and the regular Russian military. For the past two weeks, Prigozhin has issued a daily video and audio messages criticizing Russia’s military leadership, frequently in expletive-laden rants.
In the video released on Saturday, he stated that “five times more guys died than they should have” due to the “whims” of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. He praised Putin for “giving us this opportunity and great honor to defend our motherland.
Moscow has long argued that seizing Bakhmut would be a step towards wider penetration into the Donbas region, which it claims it has seized from Ukraine. It has been the primary goal of a huge offensive that has failed to gain considerable ground elsewhere.
Prigozhin has admitted that Bakhmut, a former city of 70,000 people, has minimal strategic relevance, despite possessing enormous symbolic significance due to the scale of losses in Europe’s worst land combat since World War Two.