Has Russia captured Bakhmut? The conflicting claims over the Ukrainian city explained

There is uncertainty surrounding the current fate of Bakhmut. While Moscow has claimed the eastern Ukrainian city is under its control, Kyiv maintains all is not lost yet. Bakhmut, a salt-mining town in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has witnessed a bloody conflict for more than nine months.

Why is there confusion about the status of Bakhmut? What does capturing the city mean for Russia’s war in Ukraine? Let’s understand.

Russia claims Bakhmut has fallen

On Saturday (20 May), Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russia-backed Wagner private mercenary group, claimed in a video posted on Telegram that the city has fallen.

In the clip, Wagner fighters were seen holding Russian flags with ruins visible in the background, reported AFP.

Hours later, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement, “As a result of offensive actions by Wagner assault units, supported by artillery and aviation of the Southern Group of Forces, the liberation of Artyomovsk (Soviet-era name of Bakhmut) has been completed”.

Russian president Vladimir Putin also lauded Wagner for the “completion of the operation to liberate” Bakhmut.

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“Vladimir Putin congratulated the assault units of Wagner as well as all servicemen of units of the Russian armed forces who provided them with the necessary support and flank cover, on the completion of the operation to liberate” the city, TASS news agency quoted Kremlin as saying.

In an audio message on Sunday, Prigozhin said his mercenaries have captured all the territory in Bakhmut and would leave the front line in the coming days.

“Wagner has made no advances. Wagner today captured no territory. We have captured all the territory we promised to capture, right up to the last centimetre,” Prigozhin said, as per Reuters. “As we stated yesterday, we are handing over our positions to (Russia’s) Defence Ministry and on the 25th (of May) we are leaving the conflict zone.”

Ukraine’s denial

The confusion began after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday “appeared to confirm” that Bakhmut has been lost to the Russians, reported AFP.

Zelenskyy, who was in Japan’s Hiroshima to meet the Group of Seven (G7) leaders, told reporters when asked whether the city is still under Ukraine’s control: “I think no.”

“For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing in this place,” Zelenskyy replied, as per USA Today.

However, soon his office denied the fall of the city, saying the remarks referred to the complete destruction of Bakhmut.

Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops are estimated to have died and the city has been “razed to the ground”.

“Our soldiers are holding fortifications and a number of areas in the southwest of the city,” Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Army Group East, told Ukrainian television, according to Al Jazeera.

“The president spoke correctly. The city has effectively been razed to the ground”, Cherevaty added.

Later, Zelenskyy also denied the capture of Bakhmut and said Ukraine’s soldiers are still in the city. “We are keeping on, we are fighting”.

“I clearly understand what is happening in Bakhmut. I can’t share the tactics of the military, but a country even bigger than ours cannot defeat us. A little time will pass and we will be winning. Today our soldiers are in Bakhmut,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.

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Zelenskyy also likened Bakhmut’s ruination to the destruction of Hiroshima in the Second World War when the Japanese city was bombed by the United States.

“I’ll tell you openly: Photographs of ruined Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined,” he told reporters, as per Reuters.

A top Ukrainian general said on Sunday that Kyiv’s troops still controlled an “insignificant” part of Bakhmut, adding that the forces were advancing around the edges in order to encircle the city.

“Ukrainian troops keep advancing on the flanks and are approaching a ‘tactical encirclement’ of Bakhmut,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi said, according to The Kyiv Independent.

As per Reuters, this was reiterated by Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar who wrote on Telegram: “Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy … the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls”.

What will Bakhmut’s fall mean?

Once having a population of 70,000-80,000, Bakhmut – the site of Russia’s longest and bloodiest fighting in Ukraine – holds symbolic importance for both sides.

If Russia has captured the city, it would boost the morale of its soldiers who have not made any major gains since July last year.

The fall of Bakhmut would be seen as a “victory for Prigozhin and potentially raise his standing with the Kremlin”, according to Al Jazeera.

For Ukraine, the battle of Bakhmut is a symbol of its resistance against the Russian invasion. Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler explained that the “city symbolises so much for people. It has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance and resilience”.

Military experts say the city does not hold any strategic importance.

However, Ukraine has warned that the capture of Bakhmut could lead to Russia focusing next on occupying the two bigger cities in the Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

“We understand that after Bakhmut they (Russian forces) could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction,” Zelenskyy had said in March.

As per Reuters, Russia needs to capture both cities to complete what it defines as the “liberation” of the “People’s Republic of Donetsk.”

The town of Chasiv Yar, which lies west of Bakhmut, could be targeted by Russian forces next. But, as per Reuters, Western analysts have expressed doubts if Russian troops can “swiftly capitalise on Bakhmut’s capture”.

With inputs from agencies

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