Russian TV and tabloids on Tuesday were ecstatically celebrating the Kremlin’s claim that the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut had fallen, comparing the disputed victory to the Red Army liberation of Berlin in 1945.
President Vladimir Putin’s congratulatory statement to the troops was highlighted, and announcers emphasized the victory by using the city’s Soviet former name of Artyomovsk. This despite the Ukraine military’s claim that it retains a small part of the city and has retaken villages to the north and south − and could soon encircle the the battered, almost deserted city that before the war was home to more than 70,000 people.
“The myth that Artyomovsk is an unassailable fortress has been crushed,” said the anchor on Channel One, Russia’s most popular state broadcaster. “Those are historic events.”
Footage showed Russian fighters yelling “Victory!” and placing the Russian tricolor flag and the black flag of the private military contractor Wagner atop a severely damaged high-rise building. Wagner forces led the months-long push to seize the city, and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops will leave the city to be occupied by Russian Defense Ministry forces. Those forces previously have struggled to hold ground taken by Wagner.
Developments:
⋅ Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited naval infantry troops at the front line to mark the annual Day of the Ukrainian Marines.
⋅ Several countries, including Poland, have already started training Ukrainian pilots to use U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets, the European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said. President Joe Biden said last week the U.S. will train Ukrainian pilots.
Troops, reports clash in Russian border villages
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have driven “terrorist saboteurs” out of multiple villages on the Russian side of the Ukraine border, hours after Ukraine said anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers had seized them. The Free Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps recorded a video Monday saying they had crossed into Russia and took control of bordering villages. “The Legion returns home,” armed men in one of the videos said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the “saboteurs” were blocked and defeated by airstrikes and artillery fire. “The remnants of the nationalists were driven back to the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be hit by fire until they were completely eliminated,” the ministry said on Telegram.
The ministry claimed over 70 saboteurs were killed and four armored combat vehicles destroyed. It dismissed the attacks as a Ukrainian ruse to distract attention from what Russia claims was the fall of Bakhmut over the weekend.
Contributing: The Associated Press
