Ukraine military denies Wagner's claim of capturing village near Bakhmut

New Delhi: Ukraine’s military on Sunday denied Russian mercenary Wagner group’s claim of capturing Yahidne village near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a morning update that Russia keeps concentrating its offensive efforts along the entire Bakhmut front line.

The months-long struggle for Bakhmut, a key east-Ukrainian city, has seen some of the bloodiest attritional fightings in the now-year-old war.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday his forces had captured Yahidne. On Friday, he had claimed control of Berkhivka, an adjacent village on the outskirts of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian bulletin, however, said attacks were continuing, citing “unsuccessful offensives” near six settlements, including Yahidne and Berkhivka, in the Donetsk region, which Moscow claims to have annexed.

The battlefield reports of either side could not be verified, according to a Reuters report.

Ukraine’s Sunday bulletin said Russian forces had shelled the areas of 22 settlements along that part of the front line in Donetsk over the past day, while Ukraine had repelled 71 in Donetsk and elsewhere along the frontline.

The fierce battles along the front lines in Ukraine’s south and east, especially near Bakhmut, now consist of crawling attempts by each side to move the line, sometimes just a few metres at a time.

Russia has made progress towards encircling Bakhmut but failed to capture it in time to deliver a victory for President Vladimir Putin to announce on Friday’s anniversary of his invasion.

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