Bakhmut: Wagner raises Russian flag but Ukraine fights on

The caput of Russia's Wagner backstage service says helium has raised a Russian emblem implicit Bakhmut's metropolis hallway successful Ukraine.

In a night-time video, Yevgeny Prigozhin said Bakhmut was present Russian "in a ineligible sense".

However helium admitted Ukrainian forces were inactive concentrated successful occidental districts.

And the stunt was dismissed by Ukraine, which said its service inactive holds Bakhmut - an eastbound metropolis which Russia has spent months trying to capture.

"The force has not stopped its battle of Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian defenders are courageously holding the metropolis arsenic they repel galore force attacks," the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

Analysis by the Institute for the Study of War said that, arsenic of Sunday, Ukraine inactive held overmuch of the metropolis - though Russian troops were attempting to envelop it from the southbound and east.

According to the ISW, the metropolis assembly gathering is successful portion of the metropolis precocious claimed by Russia, arsenic it approaches from the east.

Wagner - officially called a backstage subject institution - has suffered dense losses during warring successful Bakhmut.

Many of its recruits are convicts released from Russian prisons drafted successful to swell the group's numbers.

Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers person died successful the combat for power of the metropolis - and it's thought Russian losses person been acold higher than Ukraine's.

Bakhmut has small strategical value, but Ukraine has seen it arsenic an important drain connected Russia's subject instrumentality and manpower.

Russian commanders anticipation taking Bakhmut mightiness springiness them a springboard for further territorial gains.

The BBC has not been capable to verify the footage posted by Mr Prigozhin.