Zelenskyy denies Bakhmut occupied by Russian forces

HIROSHIMA, May 21 (AP): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russian forces weren't occupying Bakhmut, casting doubt on Moscow's claims that the eastern Ukrainian city has fallen.

Responding to a reporter's question about the status of the city at the Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Zelenskyy said: "Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation as of today."

Ukrainian soldiers were still engaging Russian forces in fierce battles in and around Bakhmut on Sunday, military officials said, hours after Moscow and the private army Wagner announced that their troops had taken full control of the eastern city.

The fog of war made it impossible to confirm the situation on the ground in the invasion's longest battle, and a series of comments from Ukrainian and Russian officials added confusion to the matter.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minsiter Hanna Malyar even went so far as to say that Ukrainian troops "took the city in a semi-encirclement."

"The enemy failed to surround Bakhmut, and they lost part of the dominant heights around the city," Malyar said. "That is, the advance of our troops in the suburbs along the flanks, which is still ongoing, greatly complicates the enemy's presence in Bakhmut."

Her comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the Group of Seven summit in Japan, appeared to suggest that Bakhmut had fallen.

When asked if the city was in Ukraine's hands, Zelenskyy said: "I think no, but you have to-to understand that there is nothing, They've destroyed everything. There are no buildings. It's a pity. It's tragedy."

Zelenskyy's press secretary later walked back those comments. And the spokesman for Ukraine's Eastern Group of Forces, Serhii Cherevaty, said that the Ukrainian military is managing to hold positions in the vicinity of Bakhmut.

"The president correctly said that the city has, in fact, been razed to the ground. The enemy is being destroyed every day by massive artillery and aviation strikes, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult.

"Our military keep fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. Heavy fighting is underway," he said. It was only the latest flip-flopping of the situation in Bakhmut after eight months of intense fighting.

Only hours earlier, Russian state new agencies reported that President Vladimir Putin congratulated "Wagner assault detachments, as well as all servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces units, who provided them with the necessary support and flank protection, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artyomovsk," which is Bakhmut's Soviet-era name.