HIROSHIMA, Japan – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Bakhmut is “not occupied by Russia as it is today” in a media appearance after attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.
Zelensky said he could not share precise details when it comes to military strategy, although he pointed out that Ukraine “supports” troops in Bakhmut and “witnesses” have shown that the town “is not occupied by the Russian Federation”. “, in his press conference at a conference center located in the Hiroshima Peace Park.
The Ukrainian president said that “there aren’t many ways to interpret it” when asked by the media about the confusion caused by his earlier words, in which he ambiguously answered another question about whether Ukrainians still wanted to control were fighting or if the city had passed into Russian hands, as claimed by the Russian Defense Ministry.
“We no longer have simple questions, just as we no longer have simple answers,” Zelensky said when asked about the uproar caused by his previous statements, which prompted his spokesman Sergiy Nykiforov to intervene to clarify them. Forced to
“There is no misunderstanding, I clearly understand what is happening in Bakhmut, and I clearly understand why all this is happening. I cannot share all the tactical positions of our army,” Zelensky he said.
The Ukrainian president stressed that Ukraine is showing that despite having a preferential military power Russia “cannot capture them” and that Ukrainian troops are “currently carrying out a very important mission” and “support In mode”, although he refrained from saying where exactly Bakhmut’s case is.
Zelensky also said that the current state of the city reminded him of what he saw this Sunday at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, where the devastation caused by the atomic bomb is on display.
“Nothing survives, no buildings standing. Everything is destruction,” said Zelensky, who recently visited a park and museum dedicated to remembering the victims and showing the horrors of the bombing of this Japanese city , which was the first nuclear attack in history. , done by the United States on August 6, 1945.
The Wagner Group, the flagship of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, announced the capture of the city of Bakhmut on Saturday, and the Russian Defense Ministry officially reported the city’s capture on Sunday. However, Ukrainian officials have said in the past few hours that fighting is continuing.
The battle for control of Bakhmut was one of the bloodiest battles in Ukraine and carried symbolic significance for both sides, who lost large numbers of soldiers in that city.
Japan chose the Japanese city of Hiroshima as the site of its highly symbolic-charged G7 summit, which concluded this Sunday after three days of meetings focused on the war in Ukraine and tensions with China.
Zelensky arrived in Hiroshima a day earlier, held bilateral meetings with G7 leaders and took part in two discussion sessions this Sunday focused on military aid to Ukraine and final peace talks to end the Moscow-initiated conflict.
The second round of talks was attended by heads of other countries invited by the Japanese organization, among them the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with whom Zelensky also met face-to-face, the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the Indonesian Joko Widodo.
