Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this Sunday ambiguously admitted Russian control of Bakhmut but downplayed the city’s strategic importance, saying it no longer exists.
“I don’t think so,” Zelensky told reporters in Hiroshima, Japan, when asked if the eastern Ukrainian city was still held by Ukrainian troops.
He then turned to the journalist who had asked the question and added: “What you have to understand is that there is nothing, all the buildings are destroyed”.
“For now, Bakhmut only exists in our hearts. There is nothing. Well, many dead Russian soldiers, but they came because of us,” he also said, according to the report of the Spanish agency EFE.
Zelensky traveled to Hiroshima to attend the summit of the group of seven most developed democracies, the G7, and was asked about Bakhmut after a bilateral meeting with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
The head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojin, announced on Saturday the total capture of the city of Bakhmut.
The information was later confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense and welcomed by President Vladimir Putin.
Mercenaries from the Wagner group led Russian troops in the battle for Bakhmut, the longest and bloodiest since the invasion of Ukraine on February 22, 2022.
Zelensky thanked the soldiers who fought against the Russian troops in Bakhmut for eight months.
“Our defenders in Bakhmut have done a good job and of course we appreciate the excellent work they have done,” he said.
At the beginning of the meeting with Biden, Zelensky said that Ukraine “has a strong position on the battlefield” and that expectations remain that it will soon launch a counter-offensive to recapture the regions occupied by Russia.
Despite being considered a city of no strategic value, the Battle of Bakhmut took on symbolic significance for both sides, who lost a large number of soldiers in eight months of fighting.
The number of civilian and military casualties in the battle for control of Bakhmut, as well as the 15-month war in Ukraine, is unknown.
Located 55 kilometers from the capital of the Donetsk region, the city of Bakhmut had a population of about 80,000 before the war.
Source: DN
