KYIV:  Ukrainian soldiers were still engaging Russian forces in fierce battles in and around Bakhmut on Sunday, military officials said, hours after Moscow and the private army Wagner announced that their troops had taken full control of the eastern city.
The fog of war made it impossible to confirm the situation on the ground in the invasion鈥檚 longest battle, and a series of comments from Ukrainian and Russian officials added confusion to the matter.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minsiter Hanna Malyar even went so far as to say that Ukrainian troops 鈥渢ook the city in a semi-encirclement.鈥�
鈥淭he enemy failed to surround Bakhmut, and they lost part of the dominant heights around the city,鈥� Malyar said. 鈥淭hat is, the advance of our troops in the suburbs along the flanks, which is still ongoing, greatly complicates the enemy鈥檚 presence in Bakhmut.鈥�
Her comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at the Group of Seven summit in Japan, appeared to suggest that Bakhmut had fallen.
When asked if the city was in Ukraine鈥檚 hands, Zelensky said: 鈥淚 think no, but you have to 鈥� to understand that there is nothing, They鈥檝e destroyed everything. There are no buildings. It鈥檚 a pity. It鈥檚 tragedy.鈥�
Zelensky鈥檚 press secretary later walked back those comments.
And the spokesman for Ukraine鈥檚 Eastern Group of Forces, Serhii Cherevaty, said that the Ukrainian military is managing to hold positions in the vicinity of Bakhmut.
鈥淭he president correctly said that the city has, in fact, been razed to the ground. The enemy is being destroyed every day by massive artillery and aviation strikes, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult.
鈥淥ur military keep fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. Heavy fighting is underway,鈥� he said.
It was only the latest flip-flopping of the situation in Bakhmut after eight months of intense fighting.
Only hours earlier, Russian state new agencies reported that President Vladimir Putin congratulated 鈥淲agner assault detachments, as well as all servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces units, who provided them with the necessary support and flank protection, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artyomovsk,鈥� which is Bakhmut鈥檚 Soviet-era name.
Russia鈥檚 Defense Ministry also said that Wagner and military units 鈥渃ompleted the liberation鈥� of Bakhmut.
At the G-7 in Japan, Zelensky stood side by side with US President Joe Biden during a news conference. Biden announced $375 million more in aid for Ukraine, which included more ammunition, artillery and vehicles.
鈥淚 thanked him for the significant financial assistance to (Ukraine) from (the US),鈥� Zelensky tweeted later.
The new pledge came after the US agreed to allow training on American-made F-16 fighter jets, laying the groundwork for their eventual transfer to Ukraine. Biden said Sunday that Zelensky had given the US a 鈥渇lat assurance鈥� that Ukraine wouldn鈥檛 use the F-16s jets to attack Russian territory.
Many analysts say that even if Russia was victorious in Bakhmut, it was unlikely to turn the tide in the war.
The Russian capture of the last remaining ground in Bakhmut is 鈥渘ot tactically or operationally significant,鈥� a Washington-based think tank said late Saturday. The Institute for the Study of War said that taking control of these areas 鈥渄oes not grant Russian forces operationally significant terrain to continue conducting offensive operations,鈥� nor to 鈥渢o defend against possible Ukrainian counterattacks.鈥�
In a video posted on Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said the city came under complete Russian control at about midday Saturday. He spoke surrounded by about a half-dozen fighters, with ruined buildings in the background and explosions heard in the distance.
Russian forces still seek to seize the remaining part of the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control, including several heavily fortified areas.
It isn鈥檛 clear which side has paid a higher price in the battle for Bakhmut. Both Russia and Ukraine have endured losses believed to be in the thousands, though neither has disclosed casualty numbers.
Zelensky underlined the importance of defending Bakhmut in an interview with The Associated Press in March, saying its fall could allow Russia to rally international support for a deal that might require Kyiv to make unacceptable compromises.
Analysts have said Bakhmut鈥檚 fall would be a blow to Ukraine and give some tactical advantages to Russia but wouldn鈥檛 prove decisive to the outcome of the war.
Bakhmut, located about 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk, had a prewar population of 80,000 and was an important industrial center, surrounded by salt and gypsum mines.
The city, which was named Artyomovsk after a Bolshevik revolutionary when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, also was known for its sparkling wine production in underground caves. Its broad tree-lined avenues, lush parks and stately downtown with imposing late 19th-century mansions 鈥� all now reduced to a smoldering wasteland 鈥� made it a popular tourist destination.
When a separatist rebellion engulfed eastern Ukraine in 2014 weeks after Moscow鈥檚 illegal annexation of Ukraine鈥檚 Crimean Peninsula, the rebels quickly won control of the city, only to lose it a few months later.
After Russia switched its focus to the Donbas following a botched attempt to seize Kyiv early in the February 2022 invasion, Moscow鈥檚 troops tried to take Bakhmut in August but were pushed back.
The fighting there abated in autumn as Russia was confronted with Ukrainian counteroffensives in the east and the south, but it resumed at full pace late last year. In January, Russia captured the salt-mining town of Soledar, just north of Bakhmut, and closed in on the city鈥檚 suburbs.
Intense Russian shelling targeted the city and nearby villages as Moscow waged a three-sided assault to try to finish off the resistance in what Ukrainians called 鈥渇ortress Bakhmut.鈥�
Mercenaries from Wagner spearheaded the Russian offensive. Prigozhin tried to use the battle for the city to expand his clout amid the tensions with the top Russian military leaders whom he harshly criticized.
鈥淲e fought not only with the Ukrainian armed forces in Bakhmut. We fought the Russian bureaucracy, which threw sand in the wheels,鈥� Prigozhin said in the video on Saturday.
The relentless Russian artillery bombardment left few buildings intact amid ferocious house-to-house battles. Wagner fighters 鈥渕arched on the bodies of their own soldiers鈥� according to Ukrainian officials. Both sides have spent ammunition at a rate unseen in any armed conflict for decades, firing thousands of rounds a day.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that seizing the city would allow Russia to press its offensive farther into the Donetsk region, one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow illegally annexed in September.