Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed on Sunday that Bakhmut is not occupied by Russia and compared the level of destruction in the eastern Ukrainian city to that caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
Bakhmut “is not occupied by Russia as of today,” Zelensky said during a news conference at the Hiroshima Peace Park at the end of the G7 summit.
Zelensky said he could not share exact information due to military tactics and that the worst would be if Ukrainian troops were surrounded “if there was a tactical error in Bakhmut.”
He reaffirmed that Ukraine has support troops in Bakhmut and that witnesses say that the city “is not occupied by the Russian Federation.”
“There are not several ways to interpret this,” he replied, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE, when asked about the confusion caused by comments he had made earlier in Hiroshima.
At the end of a meeting with his US counterpart Joe Biden, Zelensky gave an ambiguous answer to the question of whether Kiev troops were still fighting in Bakhmut or whether the city had been conquered by Russia.
“For now, Bakhmut exists only in our hearts,” he also said at the time.
The total conquest of Bakhmut was announced this Saturday by the head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigojin.
The information was later confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry and welcomed by President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky insisted at the news conference that Bakhmut was completely destroyed after eight months of fighting in what is considered the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“I can honestly say that the images of destroyed Hiroshima remind me of Bakhmut. There is absolutely nothing left alive, all the buildings are destroyed (…), absolute and total destruction,” Zelensky said, quoted by the French agency AFP.
“Today, Hiroshima is a rebuilt city and we dream of rebuilding our cities that are currently in ruins,” added the Ukrainian leader.
Located fifty kilometers from the capital of the Donetsk region, Bakhmut had about 80,000 inhabitants before the war started by Russia on February 24, 2022.
Despite not being considered a strategic city, the battle for Bakhmut took on symbolic importance for both the Ukrainians and the Russians, who lost large numbers of soldiers in eight months of fighting.
Aerial images of Bakhmut show burned and dilapidated buildings and rubble-strewn streets.
The United States atomic bombing attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II, forced Japan to surrender.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima killed some 140,000 people, whom Zelensky honored today at the monument he dedicated to them.
In a sober and highly symbolic act, Zelensky placed a wreath of white flowers, with yellow and blue Ukrainian ribbons, in front of the monument, next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Before the ceremony, Zelensky visited the nearby Peace Memorial Museum, which displays artifacts and photographs attesting to the horror caused by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
Source: TSF
