KYIV—Ukraine’s military claimed its troops were locked in combat with Russian forces around the administration building of Bakhmut on Monday, and it poured scorn on Russian claims that Russians had captured the eastern city after months of warfare.
In Moscow, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of being behind a bomb blast at a cafe in St Petersburg on Sunday that killed a prominent Russian pro-war blogger. Russia said it had arrested a woman suspected of blowing up the blogger.
The battle for Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the conflict, now in its second year.
Front lines have shifted backwards and forwards in street-by-street fighting.
The head of the Wagner mercenary force, which has spearheaded the Kremlin’s campaign to encircle and capture Bakhmut, said on Sunday his troops had raised a Russian flag on the administrative building in the city centre.
Yevgeny Prigozhin acknowledged that Ukrainian troops were still holding some positions.
But he said in video posted on Telegram: “From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy is concentrated in the western parts.”
The Ukrainian military said on Monday however that fighting was still going on in Bakhmut as well as in several other towns.
Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesperson for the eastern military command, claimed the Russian claim to have captured the city was false. Clashes were taking place around the city council building, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his Sunday night video address, thanked the soldiers fighting in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka.
Multiple Attacks
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting had engulfed the centre of Bakhmut. Ukrainian forces had repelled 25 enemy attacks but Russian forces had captured the AZOM metal plant, he said.“The enemy is attacking the city centre from the north, the east and the south and is trying to take the city under its full control,” Zhdanov said in a video on YouTube.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
A mining city and logistics hub on the edge of a chunk of Donetsk Province under Russian control, Bakhmut had a population of 70,000 before Moscow invaded Ukraine in February last year.
Russian forces are seeking a victory to give new momentum to a winter offensive.
Blogger Death
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the assassination of blogger Vladlen Tatarsky on Sunday “a terrorist act” and cited Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee in saying that there was evidence linking Ukraine to the bombing.The woman arrested—Darya Trepova—is a Russian citizen who has previously been detained for protesting against the war in Ukraine, the TASS state news agency reported.
Peskov said security would be beefed up for Russia’s Victory Day holiday in May.
Ukraine has not commented on Peskov’s suggestion that it may have been behind the blast, but Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelenskyy, claimed on Sunday it had only been a matter of time before Russia became consumed by what he called domestic terrorism.
Meanwhile Moscow’s ambassador to Minsk said on Sunday that Russia would move nuclear weapons close to the western borders of Belarus—a move that would place them at NATO’s threshold.
The weapons “will increase the possibilities to ensure security,” ambassador Boris Gryzlov told Belarusian state television.
“This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the United States.”
In warnings to the West against arming Ukraine, Russian officials increasingly play up the risks of nuclear weapons being used in the war, and last month said they would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.
