MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2023) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied on Sunday that Russia had taken full control of Bakhmut after Russian troops were filmed raising the flag over the hotly contested city.
"I know for sure what is going on in Bakhmut ... As of today, Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation," he told a press conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group private military company, announced Bakhmut's capture on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry later confirmed that the city had fallen under full control of Russian troops.
Zelenskyy seemed to concede the defeat in a comment to Reuters on Sunday before going back on his words. Prigozhin argued there was "not a single Ukrainian soldier" in the city and suggested that the Ukrainian president was "either dishonest or unaware of the facts on the ground."
