Confusion reigns over his fate Bahamut. Ukraine assured today Sunday that its forces are still advance on the sides of the city, and intend to surround her. Earlier, Moscow congratulated Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner private mercenary organization and the Russian military for capturing the city.

If the capture of Bahamut is confirmed, it will be the end of the bloodiest and longest battle of the war.

However, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Alexander Shirsky, (photos below) claimed that Ukrainian forces still control an “insignificant”, as he admitted, part of Bakhmut but this will allow them to enter the city when the situation changes. Sirski visited the front line near Bahmut and thanked the soldiers defending the area. As he wrote in Telegram, the forces of Kiev are advancing in the suburbs and are getting closer to their goal, that is, the encirclement of the city which had a population of 70,000 before the war.

A similar statement was made by Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense Hana Maliar. “Our forces have half encircle the citywhich gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy (…) the enemy will have to defend in the part of the city that he controls,” she said in a Telegram post. She added that the Ukrainians are still defending industrial facilities and other infrastructure while they have captured some neighboring heights .

Reuters was unable to confirm this information from the battlefield.