Kiev attempts to dispel confusion about Bahmut. The Ukrainian government has launched a communications counterattack to clarify comments made earlier Sunday by the Ukrainian president about the status of the city in eastern Ukraine after his remarks Volodymyr Zelensky, which were initially seen as an admission that it did fall into Russian hands.

Zelensky’s comments were misinterpreted, his spokesman Serhii Nikiforov wrote on Facebook.

According to him, Zelensky’s “I don’t think so” comment was made in response to a journalist’s statement that the Russians claimed to have captured the city.

Zelensky’s statement was widely interpreted as confirmation that the city had fallen into the hands of the Russian army.

The Ukrainian president’s comments were made during a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Asked if Bakhmut remains in Ukrainian hands, the journalist added that Moscow claims it has captured Bakhmut.

“I do not think”, Zelensky replied, adding that the city is almost completely destroyed, that there are no buildings left and “there are many dead Russians”.

In fact, as Zelensky said, the photos from the destruction of Hiroshima during the Second World War remind him of Bakhmut and other destroyed Ukrainian cities.

However, the information and statements regarding Bahmut’s status are confusing. The head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was the first to announce that the city had fallen. His men support the Russian soldiers in the war. Moscow later confirmed his claim.

But Kiev has not confirmed that Russian forces have taken the city, and a senior Ukrainian general said that Kiev forces control a “small” part of Bakhmut, but that this is enough to allow them to enter the city once the situation changes.

In a Telegram post, General Oleksandr Sirsky said that Kiev forces were overwhelming Russian forces in the outskirts of Bakhmut and were closing in on a “tactical encirclement of the city”.