The Kremlin has proclaimed a long-awaited and costly victory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a claim immediately and forcefully rejected by Kyiv as a fiction divorced from the reality of ongoing combat.
In a statement from Moscow, President Vladimir Putin congratulated his armed forces and the controversial Wagner private military company on what he called the successful “liberation” of the Donetsk region city. The Russian defence ministry asserted that its forces had “completed the liberation” of the city following intense combat operations.
However, the Ukrainian leadership presented a starkly different picture. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated that fighting was still raging on the city's flanks, suggesting that Russian forces had merely captured the “ruins of a city” after obliterating it in a months-long campaign of attrition. He added that Kyiv's forces continued to advance on the outskirts in a semi-encirclement tactic.
The High Cost of a Hollow Victory
The battle for Bakhmut has become the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements of the war, with a staggering cost in human life, particularly for the Russian side. Analysts suggest that any Russian victory is largely symbolic, as the city now holds little strategic military value after being reduced to rubble.
Ukrainian forces are understood to have made tactical withdrawals from some of the most devastated central districts, while maintaining defensive positions in the surrounding industrial areas and high ground. This has allowed them to inflict continued heavy casualties on Russian troops.
A Political Move for the Kremlin
The declaration of victory is widely seen as a crucial political necessity for the Kremlin. After months of pouring resources and suffering immense losses for minimal territorial gain, President Putin needed a tangible success to present to the Russian people ahead of next year's presidential election.
The announcement also serves to bolster the position of the Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been engaged in a very public and bitter feud with the Russian military's top brass over ammunition supplies and tactics used in the gruelling battle.
For Ukraine, the dogged defence of Bakhmut has succeeded in its primary objective: pinning down and degrading a significant portion of Russia's combat-ready forces, buying precious time for a planned counter-offensive with newly supplied Western weapons.
