Ukraine on Friday said it had regained ground from Bakhmut in a rare and significant move in the war-torn region, though it doesn’t appear to be part of the long-awaited Kyiv spring offensive.
Fox News Digital could not independently verify any changes in position or progress in the fighting around Bakhmut, although according to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar, Ukrainian forces had advanced more than two miles in a week into the region, she said. first reported the BBC.
The claims come days after Russian mercenary group Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin suggested Moscow was losing ground around Bakhmut and said Russian forces had abandoned their posts, claiming Ukrainian troops had closed in and were ” tearing apart the hips”.
A Ukrainian soldier gives water to a captured Russian Army serviceman in a recently captured position in an offensive, according to Ukraine, as Russia’s attack on the country continues near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region , Ukraine, on Thursday. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS)
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The Russian Defense Ministry reportedly responded to Malyar’s claims and said, “Individual statements on Telegram about a ‘breakthrough’ on several frontline points do not correspond to reality.”
“The general situation in the military special operations zone is under control,” he added.
In addition, Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry, said on Friday that no new ground had been captured by Ukrainian forces and that Russian troops had indeed regrouped to face “new frontiers”.
But Prigozhin’s public contempt for the defense ministry surfaced yet again on Friday when he rebutted the Kremlin’s claims and said Konashenkov “to put it mildly, lied a little bit.”
“THE [Russian] The Defense Ministry simply fled from the flanks,” he said, according to a Pravda report. “The enemy will approach Bakhmut and will be at a distance of 500 meters from Bakhmut, occupying all tactical heights.”
Ukrainian servicemen rest in their positions after a fight as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues near the frontline town of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Thursday. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS)
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Prigozhin said Russian troops had withdrawn from an area about two square miles, which had allowed Ukrainian soldiers to enter and get a “bird’s eye view” of Bakhmut.
Chief Wagner predicted that soon Ukrainian troops will carry out the “gradual encirclement of Bakhmut”.
Russian forces first set their sights on the salt-mining town last summer, and by fall Bakhmut had become the site of some of the most brutal fighting not only in the Ukrainian war but since WWII, with the war trench that scarred Bakhmut’s sector.
But despite Moscow’s immense efforts, Russian forces have been unable to fully capture the area in eastern Donetsk, and western defense officials have been left wondering why the Kremlin has invested so much of its resources in a area that had little strategic value for Russia.
A cap is seen in a Russian position after fighting as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Thursday. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS)
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Malyar said the fight for Bakhmut, while necessary for Ukraine, had become a battle of “great importance” for Russia in an “almost sacred” conflict.
Western defense officials have previously echoed these claims and suggested the battle for Bakhmut had become symbolic in Russia’s larger goal of trying to seize Ukrainian territory.
