Moscow: The Bakhmut town in eastern Ukraine, the scene of Moscow's longest battle in the nation, has been "in a legal sense" taken, according to the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, whose units now have control of the town hall.
Despite claims from analysts that the city has little strategic significance, the Wagner group has supported Russian troops throughout the offensive to surround Bakhmut.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, posted a video holding a Russian flag on his Telegram channel, saying, "The commanders of the units that took city hall and the entire centre will go and put up this flag."
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The men who kidnapped Bakhmut are from the Wagner private military company. It belongs to us legally.
Wagner units allegedly held control of 70% of the town as of March 20 according to Prigozhin.
Even though "the enemy has not stopped its assault on Bakhmut," according to a statement made by the Ukrainian general staff late Sunday, "Ukrainian defenders are gallantly holding the city as they repel numerous enemy attacks."
The city's defence by Ukrainian troops, much of which is now in ruins, was praised by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday evening.
I'm appreciative of our soldiers who are battling close to Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Bakhmut—especially Bakhmut! There, it's especially hot right now. Zelensky wrote in his own Telegram post.
Three men and three women were killed and eleven people were hurt on Sunday in a "massive attack" of Russian missiles in Kostyantynivka, about 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian authorities.
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According to Zelensky, the affected areas are "just residential areas," and the targets were "ordinary civilians of an ordinary city of Donbas." AFP journalists observed a sizable crater in the yard, broken windows on the bottom to the top floors of two 14-story tower blocks, and damaged roofs on nearby private homes. Russia launched six S-300 and Uragan missile strikes at Kostyantynivka just after 10 a.m. local time, according to the Donetsk regional police (0700 GMT).
According to police, the explosion damaged "16 apartment buildings, 8 private homes, a kindergarten, an administrative building, three cars, and a petrol pipeline."
Liliya, a psychology student of 19, was standing in front of her severely damaged high-rise building.
I learned about this from the news. And I was just shocked when I heard about it and realised it was in my neighbourhood, Liliya said as shattered glass continued to fall from windows.
She said, after deciding to stay with her boyfriend, "I'm very, very lucky that I wasn't home at that time."
"Everything has been bombed. In fact, I believe that's how it is in every flat. Because of the force of the impact, it was very difficult for anything to remain intact.
Pensioner Nina was inspecting the damage to her ground-floor apartment in a Soviet-era building. She wasn't at home when the missile hit, either. "The front door and the interior doors were both broken into. A partition wall inside has collapsed. There are no more windows, she said. Following the incident, soldiers examined the area along with an armed man wearing civilian clothing.
Sergiy, 61, who was observing while holding a bag of groceries, claimed that "the shock wave came all the way to us, about a kilometre away." According to Zelensky, two more people were killed by mortar fire in the northeastern Sumy region. These are just a few of the daily bombings, which number in the dozens, he continued.
To stop Russian terrorism and reestablish security in all of our cities and communities, there is only one viable option. And Ukraine has won the war thanks to this course of action.
Zelensky also observed the first anniversary of the discovery of the bodies of dead civilians in Bucha, a town close to Kiev that has come to represent the alleged atrocities committed by Moscow during the conflict. This occurred earlier on Sunday.
Russia claims that the incident was staged by Ukraine and its allies.
"Ukrainian people! The largest force against humanity of our time has been stopped thanks to you, Zelensky added in another Telegram post with images of the areas that were freed a year ago when Russian troops withdrew from the area surrounding the Ukrainian capital.
Zelensky praised the individual for having "stopped a force that despises everything and wants to destroy everything that gives people meaning." "We'll free all of our lands," Investigators said that on Sunday, a bomb attack in a cafe in St. Petersburg killed a prominent Russian military blogger and ardent supporter of the military offensive in Ukraine.
At an event hosted by Cyber Front Z, which describes itself on social media as "Russia's information troops," Vladlen Tatarsky reportedly died after receiving a gift that was rigged with an explosive device. Another twenty or so people suffered injuries. In spite of protests from Kiev and Western countries that have sanctioned Moscow, Russia assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council on Saturday.
