Kiev, 21 May 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been completely captured by Russian troops, according to the Defence Ministry in Moscow and Russia's mercenary force Wagner.

 

The Russian state news agency Tass reported late Saturday evening that the Defence Ministry had announced the takeover.

 

Earlier on Saturday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin made the claim that his private army has completely captured Bakhmut, the site of intense and bloody fighting for months. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin congratulated Wagner troops in the evening.

 

A video shows Prigozhin holding a Russian flag and declaring, "We completely took over the whole city."

 

There was initially no confirmation of this from the Ukrainian side. It was not the first time that Prigozhin declared Bakhmut conquered.

 

Prigozhin, in the video, also took the opportunity to once again criticize the Russian military leadership.

 

"We fought not only with the armed forces of Ukraine, but also with the Russian bureaucracy, which threw sticks between our legs," Prigozhin said in the video.

 

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had made the "war their personal pleasure," said the Wagner head.

 

Their whims and the military bureaucracy had led to "five times as many soldiers dying as should have died," he continued.

 

He nevertheless thanked Putin, whom he considers a close confidant, for giving the Wagner fighters the opportunity to fight for Russia. This was a "great honour," he said.

 

The Wagner troops helped the "dishevelled Russian army to find itself again."

 

After what Prigozhin described as 224 days of fighting in Bakhmut's "Operation Meat Grinder," he wants to leave the rest of the fighting to the Russian armed forces. The Wagner mercenary forces were deployed in Bakhmut on October 8, 2022.

 

Referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the G7 summit of leading industrialized democracies in Japan, Prigozhin said that Kiev had fought "bravely and well" and mockingly urged Zelensky to send greetings to US President Joe Biden.

 

He also demanded that those who had restricted the war efforts in Moscow be held accountable.

 

The battle of Bakhmut is considered the heaviest in casualties of the 15-month war. Prigozhin also recalled the many dead, without giving numbers.

 

Ukraine has been reluctant to give up the small city, which has been contested since late summer, in order to prevent Russian troops from breaking through further inland.

 

The city is a key point on the Ukrainian defensive line between the cities of Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

 

Should the city fall, the route to the larger Ukrainian cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk would open up for Russian troops.

 

Earlier on Saturday in Kiev, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar contradicted Prigozhin's claims, saying that the "heavy fighting" in Bakhmut was continuing, although she admitted that the current situation was "critical."

 

Ukrainian forces were still defending their positions and controlling industrial and infrastructure objects, said Maliar.

 

She had earlier said that the Russian military had moved several thousand troops to Bakhmut for reinforcement.

 

The enemy cannot win with quality, so they are trying with quantity," the deputy minister wrote on Facebook. "Russian troops continue to attack with heavy casualties that disproportionately exceed our losses."

 

In recent days, Ukraine had also reported territorial advances in Bakhmut and its surrounding area. Zelensky had urged his troops not to abandon the city.

 

However, heavy losses were being inflicted on Ukraine and the capture of the western part of the area was continuing, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.