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New Delhi: As Russia took control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said that Bakhmut was “only in our hearts” at the G7 Summit in Japan. His remarks came just hours after Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that the group of Wagner mercenaries with the support of the Russian troops seized control of the city.
Speaking alongside US President Joe Biden in Hiroshima, Zelenskyy said he believed that the city had fallen but, added, “You have to understand that there is nothing. They (Russians) destroyed everything.”
News agency Associated Press quoted Zelesnkyy as saying, “For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing in this place.
His statement came after US President Biden had just announced an aid of $375 million more including ammunition, artillery, and vehicles.
The Russian Ministry’s statement came on Telegram eight hours after a similar claim was made by Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin. Ukrainian authorities at that time, however, said that the battle was continuing, while admitting that the situation was “critical.”
Using the city’s Soviet-era name, the Russian ministry said, “In the Artyomovsk tactical direction, the assault teams of the Wagner private military company with the support of artillery and aviation of the southern battlegroup have completed the liberation of the city of Artyomovsk, reported AP News.
A Washington-based think tank said on late Saturday evening that Russia’s victory in Bakhmut is unlikely to turn the tide in the war as capturing the last remaining ground of Bakhmut won’t be tactically or operationally significant.
The Institute for the Study of War said that taking control of these areas “does not grant Russian forces operationally significant territory to continue conducting offensive operations,” nor to “defend against possible Ukrainian counterattacks.”
Bakhmut, a salt-mining town that once had a population of 70,000 people, has been the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle in Moscow’s more than year-long Ukraine offensive.
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