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"KYIV, May 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Sunday that its forces were still advancing around the edges of Bakhmut, aiming to encircle the ruined eastern city after Moscow congratulated the Wagner private army and Russian troops for capturing it. Russia said on Saturday it had completely taken Bakhmut, which, if confirmed, would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his regular troops and the Wagner group. On Sunday, however, a top Ukrainian general said Kyiv's forces still controlled what he accepted was an "insignificant" part of Bakhmut, although...

Update from Ukraine | Bakhmut may become a Rat trap for Wagner | No way to run | Positive scenario https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxJoNEx2l8 ****NEW SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: Invasion Day 452– Summary May 21, 2023 Jerome News The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-452-summary/ *** Greatly appreciate the viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use on each Front map!

The nine-month battle for the small Ukrainian city of Bakhmut effectively came to an end on Sunday, as Russian forces finally captured the last significant Ukrainian strongholds on its western edge. While Kyiv disputes Russia’s claim of controlling all of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s top commander in the region, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, has acknowledged that his forces retain a presence only in an “insignificant” part of the city, even as they push ahead on its flanks. Who has won and who has lost isn’t measured, however, in current control over the uninhabitable ruins that are left from Bakhmut, a once prosperous...

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Sunday that his forces had captured all the territory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as promised and would leave the conflict zone later this week. "Wagner has made no advances. Wagner today captured no territory. We have captured all the territory we promised to capture, right up to the last centimetre," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message posted on Telegram messaging app. "As we stated yesterday. We are handing over our positions to (Russia's) Defence Ministry and on the 25th (of May) we are leaving the conflict zone."

Graham Phillips reports for Lugansk, Russia, showing footage of Wagner forces flying the Russian flag over various parts of what was Bakhmut.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russian forces do not occupy Bakhmut, despite Moscow’s assertions that the city had been taken. “Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation as of today,” Zelensky said in response to a reporter’s question at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan.

Former Russian commander Igor Girkin knocked the "strategic senselessness" of Russia's claimed Bakhmut victory on Saturday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit, said his troops took full control of Bakhmut on Saturday following months of fighting over the Donetsk city. His claims, which could not be independently verified, were dismissed by Ukraine. Bakhmut has emerged as a major focal point in the Russia-Ukraine war, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin last February, as both sides have engaged in intense, bloody fighting over the city. As Prigozhin celebrated the alleged victory, Girkin took to Telegram to question...

Yevgeny Prigozhin says Wagner group will leave Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Thursday. A Russian mercenary leader is preparing to pull his hired fighters out of Bakhmut, handing over the captured Ukrainian city to Russia's less skilled government troops. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private army, says his soldiers will leave the city on Thursday and hand it over to the Russian military. 'Until May 25, we will completely inspect it, create the necessary defense lines and hand it over to the military so that they can continue to work, and we ourselves will go to field camps,' he said.

"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Bakhmut was “only in our hearts,” hours after Russia’s defense ministry reported that forces of the Wagner private army, with the support of Russian troops, had seized the city in eastern Ukraine. Speaking alongside U.S. President Joe Biden at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Zelenskyy said the Russians had destroyed “everything.” “You have to understand that there is nothing,” he said. “For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts,” he said. “There is nothing in this place.”......"

Russia says it has fully captured the smashed eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month war, although the claim was denied by Ukraine earlier in the day. The assault on the largely levelled city was led by troops from the Wagner group of mercenaries, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that his troops had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city. Taking Bakhmut – which Russia refers to by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk – would represent Moscow’s first big victory...

Update from Ukraine | Wagner captured Bakhmut and will run from it in 5 days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Vlt4Qe7HU ****NEW SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: Invasion Day 451– Summary May 20 , 2023 Jerome News The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-451-bakhmut-city/ *** Greatly appreciate the viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use on each Front map!

The so far largest battle of the 21st century ended today. Bakhmut has fallen. Artyomovsk (the Russian/Soviet name of the city) has been liberated. This was announced today by the titular leader of the Wagner forces, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a video posted on Telegram. Why the Ukrainian leadership had decided to hold onto the city even months after the situation there was already in its disfavor is beyond me. The fight was decided by the numerical superiority of Russian artillery fire and the Ukraine had never a chance to top that. The losses there for the Ukrainians amounted to 300...

"The fight for Bakhmut will change the trajectory of our war." -- Volodymyr Zelensky, December 21, 2022.Breaking News l Bakhmut Has Fallen l Russian Forces Fully Captured Bakhmut

Prigozhin: Russian forces have fully established control over Artemovsk MOSCOW, May 20-RIA Novosti. Russian forces have fully established control over Artemovsk, said the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, his statement was published by the entrepreneur's press service in the Telegram channel. "On the afternoon of May 20, Artemovsk, the last section of the so-called Samolet high-rise building, was completely taken," Prigozhin said. According to him, from May 25, Wagner will begin withdrawing its units for rest and retraining. The fighters of the group will also create "the necessary lines of defense." Control over the city will transferred to...

The Ukrainian military and Russia's Wagner private army both reported further Russian retreats around the city of Bakhmut on Thursday, as Kyiv pressed on with its biggest advance for six months ahead of a planned counteroffensive. Ukrainian troops near the front line said Russia was bombarding access roads to slow the Ukrainian assault, which has shifted momentum after months of slow Russian gains in Europe's deadliest ground combat since World War Two. "Now, for the most part, as we have started to advance, they are shelling all the routes to front positions, so our armoured vehicles can't deliver more infantry,...

(Note: The information coming from Bakhmut so far is confirmed. The rumors about the fate of Ukraine’s generals are not confirmed.) The Dnieper is absolutely strategic for Ukraine. If the Russians can reach its banks, Ukraine will be cut in half.....manpower remains Ukraine’s Achilles heel. It is becoming more and more difficult for Ukraine to recruit soldiers or dragoon young men into service. This will only multiply when the full impact of the Bakhmut defeat is known to the Ukrainian public. The Ukrainian army leadership also is in doubt. Its top leader, General Valery Zaluzhny, seemingly has disappeared. And so,...

Russia has acknowledged that Ukraine has made territorial gains in the battle for Bakhmut, where Kyiv's forces are said to be advancing on the flanks of the Donetsk city. The Russian defense ministry said Wednesday that its airborne forces had made marginal advances but acknowledged that Ukraine was continuing its counterattacks near Bohdanivka, three miles to the northwest of the city, and Ivanivske, four miles west. Pro-Kremlin military analysis channel Rybar called for Russian forces to react to Ukrainian actions, implying that Moscow's forces are losing the initiative in the Bakhmut area. "Fierce battles are taking place on the flanks"...

The Ukrainian military and Russia's Wagner private army both reported further Russian retreats on the outskirts of Bakhmut on Thursday, as Kyiv pressed on with its biggest advance for six months ahead of a planned counteroffensive. Ukrainian troops near the front line said Russia was bombarding access roads to slow the Ukrainian assault, which has shifted momentum after months of slow Russian gains in Europe's deadliest ground combat since World War Two. "Now, for the most part, as we have started to advance, they are shelling all the routes to front positions, so our armoured vehicles can't deliver more infantry,...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, on Thursday accused regular Russian army units of pulling back 570 meters north of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, leaving his own fighters’ flanks exposed. -snip- Prigozhin, who has repeatedly accused Russia’s top military brass of not doing enough to back his men, asked the defense ministry to do all it could to protect Bakhmut’s flanks after what he alleged was a withdrawal. “Unfortunately, units of the Russian defense ministry have withdrawn up to 570 meters to the north of Bakhmut, exposing our flanks,” Prigozhin said in a voice message....

Ukraine is close to retreating from Bakhmut. This could happen anytime now, but it has to happen fast enough before exit routes are closed down. Predictions of a timetable vary, but the Ukrainians should evacuate Bakhmut no later than the weekend, provided they can. There are still a couple of roads open to exit the city, secured in part by Ukrainian army attacks on the flanks of the city. But these roadways and fields will not stay available if the Wagner forces pour in fast. Monday night the Wagner forces stormed and took the two most fortified and defensible parts...