Bakhmut isn’t lost says Ukrainian Defense Minister

Russian forces do not control the entirety of Bakhmut according to Ukraine's Minister of Defense and recent developments indicate that small portions of the embattled city may have actually been taken back by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. 

The southern-Donetsk city of Bakhmut has been at the center of the conflict in Ukraine for more than ten months as the country’s armed forces have fought a bitter attritional battle with the Wagner Group in and around the town to keep it out of Russian hands. 

On May 20th, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his mercenary fighters had finally captured Bakhmut in a video posted to his Telegram channel according to Time Magazine. But Ukrainian officials have denied those claims, and still do to this day. 

The latest denial of Bahamut's capture from the Ukrainian government came from the country’s Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, who explained to Channel News Asia at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference, Ukraine still controlled a part of the city. 

“We use Bakhmut as a stronghold to reduce their offensive capability,” Reznikov noted, adding Ukraine still had control of the territory but remarking that Bakhmut wasn’t a city anymore because the Russians had destroyed everything Channel News Asia reported. 

Bakhmut had seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war to date and both sides have taken turns demolishing buildings to prevent the other side from gaining control of key areas that would allow them to control the battle. But has Ukraine recaptured anything?

On June 3rd, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on her Telegram channel that the situation around Bakhmut was “conditionally stable” according to a translation from Newsweek, and that Ukraine controlled the southwest outskirts of the city. 

While you may have been led to believe that the battle for Bakhmut was over, fighting in the area around the city has never stopped. Ukrainian forces are continuing to pressure the Russian forces on the outskirts of the city that replaced Wagner Group mercenaries.  

The Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote in a June 5th post on Telegram that Ukrainian forces were moving forward in Bakhmut, publishing the text alongside a video of a kamikaze drone smashing into what appeared to be a tank. 

“Bakhmut direction. The elimination of the enemy continues,” Col. General Oleksandr Syryski wrote according to a translation from Ukraine’s National News Agency, Ukrainform.

“The Defense Forces are moving forward. We are getting them on the ground and from the air," the Ukrainian Commander added. But are Ukrainian forces making progress?

In his June 5th nightly address, President Zelensky insinuated that Ukrainian forces had made some gains around Bakhmut when he thanked the soldiers in the are for giving “us today the news [we] have been waiting for. Well done, soldiers in the Bakhmut sector!"

No further details were provide by Zelensky but it was later revealed by Hanna Maliar that troops around Bakhmut had captured four key settlements—Orikhovo-Vasulivka, Paraskoviivka, Ivanivske, and Klishchiivka—around the city according to BBC News. 

"Despite stiff resistance and the enemy's attempts to hold the their positions, our military units advanced in several directions during the fighting,” Maliar wrote in a social media post explaining the situation on June 5th according to a translation from BBC News. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed a Ukrainian offensive was taking place in the Bakhmut sector the day before Malair’s comments but noted Russian forces had halted the advance, destroying dozens of tanks and vehicles while killing 250 of the enemy. 

"The enemy's goal was to break through our defenses in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said according to a translation from DW News. "The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success."

At present it is unclear whether Ukrainian or Russian forces have the upper hand in the city of Bakhmut and the surrounding area, but it is evident that the situation certainly isn’t resolved yet. While Ukraine may or may not control a part of the actual city, the fight for Bakhmut is still ongoing and the city may indeed not be lost.