Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ambiguously admitted Russian control of Bakhmut on Sunday 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 in the hands of Ukrainian forces.
Then, addressing the journalist who had asked the question, he added: “What you have to understand is that there is nothing there, all the buildings have been 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 by the Spanish agency EFE.
Zelensky traveled to Hiroshima to attend the summit of the group of the seven most developed democracies, the G7, and was asked about Bakhmut after a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden.
The head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigojin, announced this Saturday the total conquest of the city of Bakhmut.
The information was later confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry and welcomed by President Vladimir Putin.
Wagner group mercenaries led Russian forces 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 for eight months in Bakhmut.
“Our defenders in Bakhmut did a good job and naturally we appreciate the excellent job they did,” he said.
At the beginning of the meeting with Biden, Zelensky said Ukraine “has a strong position on the battlefield” and expectations remain that it will soon launch a counter-offensive to retake Russian-occupied regions.
Despite being considered a city without strategic value, the battle for Bakhmut acquired symbolic importance 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 in the 15-month war in Ukraine, is unknown.
Located 55 kilometers from the capital of the Donetsk region, the city of Bakhmut had about 80,000 inhabitants before the war.
Source: TSF
