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By Isabel van Brugen
News Reporter
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Ukraine has pushed back against Russian forces in the city of Bakhmut, retaking a number of buildings, a Ukrainian armed forces spokesman said on Monday.
Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty said Ukrainian forces were holding on in the southwest of the city, contradicting a claim by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who said on Saturday that his fighters had captured the town in the eastern Donetsk region, where fierce fighting has been raging since last summer.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, denied over the weekend that the city had been taken. "Bakhmut is not occupied by [the] Russian Federation as of today," he told a news conference at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
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"The president correctly said that the city has essentially been razed to the ground. The enemy is destroying it every day with massive artillery and aviation strikes, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult," Cherevaty said in an update.
"Our military are holding fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. There are tough fights," he added. "Ukraine's armed forces are trying to put pressure on the flanks, haunt them and, if possible, counterattack."
Ukraine's armed forces separately said Monday that "the enemy continues to lead offensive actions," and that "fighting for the city of Bakhmut continues."
Russian state-run agencies have cited the Kremlin as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the "Wagnerites" and Russia's military on the "liberation" of Bakhmut.
Cherevaty, in an interview with Ukraine's Radio NV, said there are two significant reasons why Prigozhin appears to have lied about a Bakhmut victory.
"There are several reasons. Firstly, they need at least some, at least a far-fetched victory, because they have already disgraced the whole world when they are not able to take the regional center for more than 9 months, although they swung at the 'second army of the world'," he said.
"Secondly, as I have already said, the Wagner terrorist organization has been destroyed, it has suffered huge losses in its personnel. [Prigozhin] really wants to crawl away, lick his wounds."
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify claims from both Russia and Ukraine, and has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank assessed on Saturday that the Wagner Group's claim of victory in Bakhmut is "purely symbolic" even if it is a true account of captured territory.
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