On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that Russian soldiers had taken the vital city of Bakhmut.
“Today, they (the Ukrainian army) are carrying out a critical mission.” They are now in Bakhmut. I shall not say at what points. However, this means that Bakhmut is not currently being held by the Russian Federation. “There aren’t two or three interpretations,” Zelenskyy stated at a press conference in Hiroshima.
His remarks come just a day after the leader of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that his forces had total control of the city.
The Ukrainian president is now in Japan, where he attended the G-7 summit and met with the leaders of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, France, India, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, and Germany.
Ukraine is still battling, according to Zelenskyy, “thanks to the courage of our people and our soldiers.”
“We do not abandon people to die.” People are a value to us. This is the most vital resource we have. There are no misinterpretations. What is going on in Bakhmut is crystal apparent to me. And we all understand why this is occurring,” he explained.
In response, Prigozhin stated that the Ukrainian president is either “disingenuous” or has no knowledge “what is happening on Earth.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy was reported to have admitted that Bakhmut had died, but his assistant Serhii Nykyforov stated it was due to a misunderstanding.
Nykyforov said in a Facebook post that Zelenskyy stated “I think no” when a reporter inquired if the Russians had occupied the city.
“In this way, the president denied the capture of Bakhmut,” Nykyforov explained.
The Ukrainian military also confirmed early Sunday that the battle for Bakhmut is still ongoing.