WASHINGTON: The battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut is not over and Ukraine forces are still fighting hard for the main town, according to a White House official.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday that Ukrainians hadn’t been repulsed from the city as claimed by Wagner’s chief.
He said an additional assistance package from the US for Ukraine could be expected this week.
His remarks came hours after Ukraine said that Russian armed forces were “far” from capturing Bakhmut and that fighting raged around the city’s administrative building where the Wagner mercenaries claimed to have lifted the Russian flag.
Serhiy Cherevatiy, the spokesperson for the eastern army command, said that “Bakhmut is Ukrainian, and they haven’t captured anything and are very far from doing that, to put it mildly,”
Earlier on Monday, the Wagner Group, which has led the assault for Bakhmut, asserted it had captured the Bakhmut town hall. Russia’s defence ministry hasn’t confirmed it has full control of the Bakhmut.
The war for the industrial city of Bakhmut has become the extended and bloodiest battle of Russia’s year-long assault on Ukraine. Bakhmut’s prewar population of approximately 70,000 citizens fled the town in 2022.
Ukrainian troops said it is hard to say how several civilians still remain in Bakhmut, with estimates ranging from 1,000 to 5,000.
