The Ukrainian Armed Forces have taken Bakhmut in a semi-encirclement, - Malyar

Ukrainian forces have taken Bakhmut into a semi-encirclement. Control of the dominant heights allows for effective destruction of the Russians in the city.

Now the occupiers are forced to defend themselves. Anna Malyar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, stated this.

A representative of the Defense Ministry stressed that the invaders never managed to encircle Bakhmut. Moreover: the occupation troops have lost part of the dominant heights around the city.

"The advance of our troops in the suburbs on the flanks, which continues even now, makes it very difficult for the enemy to be in Bakhmut. Our troops have taken the city into a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy. So the enemy, in the part of the city he controls, has to defend himself," she noted.

Malyar also stressed that the announced the day before by the owner of the PMC "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin allegedly complete capture of the city does not correspond to reality.

"Our defenders retain control over the industrial, infrastructure facilities and the private sector of Bakhmut in the "Samolet" area", - stressed the Deputy Minister of Defense.

As a reminder, the day before, on May 20, Prigozhin announced the alleged complete occupation of Bakhmut, and later, the Russian Defense Ministry said the same thing. Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated the mercenaries on their "victory," promising that all those involved will receive state awards.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied Prygozhin's statement, saying that Ukrainian soldiers continued to hold part of the territory in the southwest of the city.

On May 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to journalists' questions about Bakhmut, noted that he "does not think" the occupiers' statements are true. He also stressed that Russia had wiped the city off the face of the earth, so Bakhmut "exists only in our hearts".

At the same time, the Institute for the Study of War noted that the "seizure" of neighborhoods of Bakhmut does not give the Russian army a strategic advantage, Prigozhin may be misleading."

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