By Bond Robertson 
In a video posted on social media, Yevgeny Prigozhin stands in the city center of Bakhmut holding the Russian flag, surrounded by soldiers from his mercenary group. In the video, he claims that the Wagner Group has complete control of the entire city, and that the fighting ended at 12 noon local time.
Prigozhin, who is also dubbed “Putin’s chef” because he built his fortune on catering services, says Wagner will now withdraw from Bakhmut by May 25 and hand the city over to regular Russian forces.
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Battle of Bakhmut
Fighting for Bakhmut has raged since last summer, and the city has been described as a meat grinder because of all the soldiers who lost their lives in the fighting. Ukraine Claims That Russia lost up to 70 thousand soldiers in Bakhmut and the surrounding areas. The city, famous before the war for the production of high-quality sparkling wine, was virtually razed to the ground after the fierce and bloody fighting that broke out.
NTB writes that claims of full Russian control are categorically rejected by the Ukrainian defence.
– this is not true. Our units are still fighting in Bakhmut, said the spokesman for the Ukrainian forces, Serhiy Sherevaty.
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critical situation
And the Deputy Minister of Defense, Jana Malgar, wrote on Telegram that there are still fierce battles in the city, and that the Ukrainian forces are still holding their ground in one area. However, she does refer to the situation as “critical,” according to the NTB ban.
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Prigozhin claimed several times during the war that the Wagner Group had complete control of the cities where fighting was still raging. When Russia, led by the Wagner Group, captured Solidar this winter, it claimed several times that the city had been taken.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive along the flanks at Bakhmut, advancing relatively far in several places.
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House-to-house fighting in Bakhmut
Despite the success of the Ukrainian forces along the flanks, the Russian forces, led by the Wagner Group, continue to advance in the city itself. The battles are moving from house to house and from street to street. The Russians continue to advance, but meet fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers.
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The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has it himself Clear That the Russians lost ten times as many soldiers as the Ukraine lost in Bakhmut. In total, Ukrainian authorities claim that Russia has lost up to 202,430 soldiers after it escalated the war that has been going on since 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion on the night of February 24 last year. This number should include dead and wounded soldiers.
Ukraine claims are progressing
A large network of various military bloggers has appeared on the Telegram messaging app. Both pro-Russian and Ukrainian bloggers share their thoughts from the war. Some bloggers themselves claim that they serve at the front, and one of them calls himself “the devil in Bakhmut.” Claiming to be a Ukrainian soldier, he provides daily updates to his followers on the messaging app.
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Despite the fact that Wagner’s commander Prigozhin claims his men are in full control of the city, “The Devil in Bakhmut” writes that Ukrainian forces still hold territory in the city.
– We are advancing on the wings, we are not talking about kilometers yet, but progress continues, he writes. cable Saturday morning.
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