Vladimir Putin has hailed his first main victory for the reason that early days of the invasion of Ukraine, claiming Russian forces had captured the japanese metropolis of Bakhmut regardless of Kyiv insisting the battle “was not over”.

Russia’s president mentioned the paramilitary group Wagner had seized the Ukrainian metropolis with assist from Russia’s armed forces after a bloody, months-long battle that claimed greater than 100,000 casualties and diminished town to ruins.

“All who distinguished themselves shall be put ahead for state awards,” the Kremlin mentioned in an announcement launched in a single day on Sunday.

The battle of Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest fought in Ukraine since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022. Heavy combating erupted there final Might, however intensified in autumn and thru winter.

It was not instantly clear whether or not Russia had captured the entire metropolis. Ukraine’s navy mentioned that combating continued on Bakhmut’s western outskirts and Kyiv’s counter-attacks on Russian forces continued on the northern and southern flanks, the place they’ve gained some 10 sq. miles of territory over the previous week.

Talking on the G7 summit of superior economies in Japan, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, disputed Russia’s declare that it had taken the entire metropolis however instructed any victory could be Pyrrhic.

“You need to perceive, there’s nothing. They destroyed every part. There are not any buildings,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “It’s a pity, it’s a tragedy however for right now Bakhmut is just in our hearts [ . . . ] There’s simply floor and plenty of lifeless Russians. However they got here to us.”

The siege was led by caterer-turned-warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s founder, who has been embroiled in a bitter public spat over provides with Russia’s normal employees for many of this yr. He mentioned on Saturday that his group had captured Bakhmut with none vital help from the common armed forces.

Prigozhin recorded his video in entrance of the Bakhmut railway station, greater than two miles from the western entrance of town he claimed to have seized. Artillery hearth was nonetheless audible close by.

Ukraine’s navy denied Russia had taken management over town. “Over the previous 24 hours the enemy carried out unsuccessful assaults,” the Ukrainian navy mentioned on Sunday. “The battle for town of Bakhmut shouldn’t be over.”

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a navy spokesman for Ukraine’s japanese command, instructed the Monetary Instances by cellphone on Saturday that whereas Russian forces management most of Bakhmut, heavy combating was nonetheless beneath manner on Chaikovskoho Road, a essential street into town, and a handful of blocks alongside its western and northwestern edge.

Wagner had not established full management of Bakhmut, he insisted, regardless of Prigozhin’s claims. Cherevatyi argued that over the course of the battle “the Ukrainian military has damaged Wagner”.