Bakhmout is not “occupied”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied the total capture of the city in the east of the country. However, the day after claiming the capture of the city, the Ukrainian head of state conceded that Russian troops were indeed in the city.
“Today they are in Bakhmout,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference on the sidelines of the G7 in Japan. Before adding: “Bakhmut is not occupied by Russia today. He did not elaborate further on his remarks, which follow ambiguous initial statements about the situation in the city earlier on Sunday.
“I cannot share with you the tactical opinions of our military. The most difficult thing would be if there was a tactical error in Bakhmout and our men were surrounded,” added Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia claimed on Saturday the complete capture of Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine devastated by the longest and deadliest battle of the war launched in February 2022.
Zelensky also used his rostrum to condemn the Russian attack. “I can honestly say that the photos of destroyed Hiroshima remind me of Bakhmout. There is absolutely nothing left alive, all the buildings are destroyed […] an absolute and total destruction” before declaring, in a burst of hope: “Today, Hiroshima is a rebuilt city and we dream of rebuild our cities which are currently in ruins. »
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar assured that Kyiv troops still controlled “some industrial facilities and infrastructure” in the city and had “partially surrounded” Bakhmout thanks to a recent breakthrough on the northern flanks and South.
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, gave more indications on his Telegram account. “Although we now control only an insignificant part of Bakhmout, the importance of its defense remains. This gives us the ability to enter the city in the event of a change in the situation, which will certainly happen. We continue to advance on the flanks in the outskirts of Bakhmout, we are approaching the capture of the city in a tactical encirclement,” he wrote.
