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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Bakhmut was “not occupied” by Moscow, while the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group insisted his fighters had taken control of the eastern city “to the last centimeter”.
Kyiv’s military said it was hanging on to a small part of the city and said its troops were advancing on its flanks.
Bakhmut, a salt-mining town that once had a population of 70,000 people, has been the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in Moscow’s 15-month Ukraine offensive.
A day earlier, Wagner and Moscow’s regular army claimed to have fully captured Bakhmut, with Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulating them on the alleged conquest.
But speaking at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Zelensky denied Russia’s claims.
“Bakhmut is not occupied by Russia today,” he said during a press conference.
“I cannot share with you the tactical views of our military. The most difficult thing would be if there was some tactical mistake in Bakhmut and our people were surrounded.”
Sitting next to US President Joe Biden, Zelensky suggested it would be a pyrrhic victory for Moscow.
“You have to understand there is nothing” there in Bakhmut, he said on the sidelines of the summit in Japan.
Zelensky compared the “absolute total destruction” in Bakhmut to the devastation in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city in 1945.
“There is absolutely nothing alive (there).”
The Ukrainian army on Sunday said it retained an “insignificant” part of the city and that soldiers were advancing in from the city’s outer limits.
