A Ukrainian unit said it had routed a Russian brigade near the stronghold of Bakhmut on Wednesday.
The claim appeared to support comments by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private army, who earlier this week said the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions in Bakhmut, Moscow’s primary target in its winter offensive.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated more than a mile as the result of counter attacks.
The situation on the ground, which is the bloodiest battle in Europe since World War Two, is difficult to confirm.
Wagner units have led a months-long Russian assault on the eastern city, suffering heavy losses, but Ukrainian forces say the offensive is stalling.
“The special military operation continues. This is a very difficult operation, and, of course, certain goals have been achieved in a year,” Tass new agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling a Bosnian Serb television channel.
“We managed to beat up the Ukrainian military machine quite a bit,” said Peskov, citing Russian missile strikes in Ukraine. “This work will continue”.
Peskov said he had no doubt that Bakhmut “will be captured and will be kept under control”. He also said the Russian campaign in eastern Ukraine was proceeding slowly because Russia “is not waging war”.
“Waging war is a completely different matter - it means complete destruction of infrastucture, it means complete destruction of cities,” he said. “We are not doing this. We are trying to preserve infrastructure and preserve human lives.”
Peskov’s comments did not address claims that Russia’s 72nd Separate Motor-rifle Brigade had abandoned positions on the southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut.
In a statement, Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said: “It’s official. Prigozhin’s report about the flight of Russia’s 72nd Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade from near Bakhmut and the ‘500 corpses’ of Russians left behind is true.”
A Russian brigade is typically formed of several thousand troops.
“Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade pissed away three square km this morning, where I had lost around 500 men,” Prigozhin said on Tuesday, complaining his troops were receiving only 10% of the shells they needed.
In a statement later on social media, Prigozhin said Wagner forces had advanced 170 metres (530 feet). Ukrainian troops were confined to an area of 2.25 sq. km. (just under a square mile) and were coming under pressure in western districts dotted with high-rise apartments.
