bakhmut It is going through hours of uncertainty with mixed messages between the Russian and Ukrainian authorities. On the one hand, Russia gives conquered a city that, after ten months of fighting, is now a mixture of ruins and rubble, with Vladimir Putin congratulating Wagner’s troops.

However, Volodymyr Zelenskyfrom Hiroshima (Japan) has denied that Bakhmut is “occupied by Russia today”. He has done so after participating in the G7 summit, denying being able to share exact information on the situation in the city as it is military tactics, although he pointed out that Ukraine has “support” troops in Bakhmut and “witnesses” that show that the city ” It is not occupied by the Russian Federation”.

In the hours before, there was confusion about the ambiguity in his response to the Bakhmut situation, denying that there were “various ways of interpreting” his words. “We no longer have simple questions, just as we no longer have simple answers.“, he commented.

The Ukrainian president stressed that Ukraine is showing that Russia “cannot occupy them” despite being an a priori superior military power and that Ukrainian troops “are currently complying a very important mission” and “in support mode”, although he avoided saying where exactly in the case of Bakhmut.

Zelensky also pointed out that the current state of the city reminds him of what he has seen this Sunday at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, where the devastation caused by the atomic bomb is displayed. “There is nothing alive, no building standing. everything is destruction“said Zelensky, who recently visited the park and museum dedicated to remembering the victims and showing the horrors of the bombing of this Japanese city during what was the first nuclear attack in history, carried out by the United States on August 6 from 1945.

Russia’s position

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense maintains this Sunday that the city is under your control and is launching new attacks against nearby positions of Ukrainian forces and their supply routes to the town.

“The liberation of the city of artemovsk (the Russian name for Bakhmut) has been completed as a result of the offensive actions of Wagner’s assault detachments, with the support of artillery and aviation from the Southern Group of Forces,” said Russian Army spokesman General Igor Konaskenkov.

He wagner group, the spearhead of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, announced this Saturday the capture of the city of Bakhmut, and the Russian Ministry of Defense officially announced this Sunday the occupation of the city. However, the Ukrainian authorities have said in the last few hours that the fighting was continuing.

The battle for control of Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the war in Ukraine and had gained symbolic importance for both sides, who had lost a large number of soldiers in that city.