Kyiv denies Wagner Bakhmut claim, Russia says forces advancing

Ukraine and Russia traded barbs on Wednesday over how much Kremlin's forces control the city of Bakhmut, for months the focal point of Moscow's bid to advance through eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's military said it controlled "considerably" more than 20 per cent of the city. The claim by Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin that his Wagner mercenary group had seized more than 80 per cent of Bakhmut was untrue, it said.

Russia's Defence Ministry retorted that Wagner forces had captured three city blocks. And Russian forces, it said, had struck Ukrainian army reserves trying to break through.

After pulling back from an attempted advance on Kyiv last year in what Moscow calls a "special military operation", Russia's military has focused mainly on capturing Bakhmut as a stepping stone to advancing on cities further west in Donetsk region.

But its gains have been largely incremental over many months. Prigozhin has made a number of premature announcements in connection with Wagner's position in Bakhmut.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, dismissed Prigozhin's latest 80 per cent claim in a comment to Reuters.

"I was just in touch with the commander of one of the brigades holding the defence of the city. And I can confidently say that Ukrainian defensive forces control a considerably larger per cent of Bakhmut's territory," he said.

Analyst Konrad Muzyka, director of the Rochan military consultancy in Poland, said his calculations bore out the Russian claim of 80 per cent. "The big question is whether the current Russian tempo can be maintained," he said on Twitter.

Ukrainian forces have hung on for months in Bakhmut, where the fiercest fighting of Moscow's full-scale February 2022 invasion has killed thousands of soldiers.

Prigozhin said on Tuesday his forces controlled most of Bakhmut, including the administrative centre, factories, warehouses and municipal buildings.

"Prigozhin needs to show at least some kind of victory in the city, which they have been trying to capture for nine months in a row and that's why he's making such statements," said Cherevatyi.