The Latest Breaking News from Wagner

Ukraine says its forces north and south of Bakhmut are advancing to entrap Russians inside the ruined city Moscow says it captured.

It is still unclear whether the months-long battle for control of Bakhmut has ended, with claims by Moscow that the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group had finally captured the city being countered by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The founder of Russia's Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday that Wagner forces will leave Bakhmut, the Ukrainian city that it successfully took on Saturday after a months-long battle, from May 25 until June 1.

Russia claims it has won control of Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut after a grinding nine-month conflict in which tens of thousands of fighters have died

Ukraine’s president is denying claims that the eastern city is under Russian control after months of heavy battle.

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said on Sunday that his forces had captured all the territory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as promised and would leave the conflict zone later this week.

Ukraine said on Sunday that its forces were still advancing around the edges of Bakhmut, aiming to encircle the ruined eastern city after Moscow congratulated the Wagner private army and Russian troops for capturing it.

The monthslong battle has led to heavy losses on both sides.

‘Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing ... just ruins and dead Russians,’ says Ukraine’s president