Hours after Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian private military company Wagner, announced the raising of the Russian flag and the Wagner flag at the administration building, Ukrainian general workers killed Russian forces in control of the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. In the heart of Pakmut city.

The Ukrainian General Staff wrote on its Facebook page that “enemies did not stop their attack on Pakmut, but Ukrainian defenders bravely controlled the city and repelled several enemy attacks,” referring to Russian forces and their loyalist separatists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said earlier on Sunday that the situation in the city of Baghmut was particularly hot on Sunday, in addition to Kremina, Belogrivka and several towns and cities in eastern Ukraine. Zelinski said six people were killed and 11 wounded in the blast targeting West Bagmouth.

A few weeks ago, President Zelensky warned in a televised interview that if Russian forces captured Bagmut, “the road would be open” for Moscow’s forces to capture several cities in the east of the country.

The Ukrainian denial came hours after Wagner’s leader announced that his fighters had raised the Russian flag and the flag of his forces at an administration building in the city center of Baghmut. Prigozhin admitted that Ukrainian forces were still present in the western parts of Bakmut.

“Legal” control

“From a legal point of view, Bagmuth has been captured,” Wagner’s leader said in a message to Two Voices on the Telegram website, after raising the Russian flag over the city’s symbol of power, the administration building at the center. Pakmutin.

“Commanders of Russian forces in charge of managing the city and its entire center will hang and raise banners and flags,” Prigozhin said in a video clip, Russia Today reported.

⚡️ #breaking news

Prigozhin: “April 2, 2023, 23:00. We hoisted the Russian flag with the inscription “Good memory to Vladlen Tatarsky” and the PMC “Wagner” flag at the city administration of Pakmut. Bagmuth was taken according to law. Enemies are concentrated in the west… pic.twitter.com/ZvU7Csos2S

– Russian victory is inevitable 🇷🇺 (@WinRussiawill) April 2, 2023

Earlier, the Russian military website “Ryadovka” reported that Wagner’s fighters were engaged in heavy fighting in the southwest of the city and, he said, were gradually penetrating Ukrainian defenses.

And Denis Pushilin, the so-called acting head of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, announced last Tuesday that the industrial zone of the city of Bakhmut had been completely controlled and Ukrainian forces had been withdrawn from it.

Serhii Sopko, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ regional defense forces, announced that he would increase the number of his troops by tens of thousands, up from 6,000 before the war. Sopko added that all units of the regional security forces are fighting. experience, and participate in counterattacks in Bakhmut, Donetsk and Karkiv axes.

After more than 7 months of intense fighting, the Russian forces were unable to control it, and Pakmut gained symbolic and tactical importance.

Pakmut suburb

Against the backdrop of the Pakmut battles, Ukrainian authorities announced on Sunday morning that six civilians had been killed and eight others wounded in a Russian bombardment in the town of Kostyandinivka, 20 kilometers west of Pakmut.

“The Russians carried out heavy bombing of the city of Kostiantynivka,” Director of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said via the Telegram application, adding that the bombing damaged 16 residential buildings, 8 houses, a kindergarten and an administrative building. .

The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the pace of Russian offensives in Pakmut had slowed significantly, noting that Russian forces had not made any confirmed gains in and around the town during clashes last Saturday.

Heavy snowfall and fluctuating weather conditions in the Pakmut area slowed the Russian advance on the city, the institute report indicated.

Winter attack

Overall, the Russian military’s winter offensive in eastern Ukraine “failed to achieve the Kremlin’s goals of seizing the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by March 31, 2023,” the ISW said.

#Bakhmuth Update:#Russian On 1 April the forces did not make any tangible gains in or around Pakmut. The Pakmut area had recently experienced heavy snowfall and the weather conditions may have slowed down Russian advances in the city.https://t.co/5A4xcPwA1e https://t.co/Yvo1vpjJZ9 pic.twitter.com/E7LSTLoxLo

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) April 2, 2023

The agency pointed out that this view is widespread in Russian, Ukrainian and Western sources.

He added that there was speculation among Russian military commentators that Moscow could soon make a change to its top military leadership after the failed attack.

Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff, who was appointed in January to head forces in the war zone of what Russia calls special military operations, has not met President Vladimir Putin’s expectations, the US agency said.