Wagner claims ‘legal’ control of Bakhmut, while Ukraine says it is still fighting.

Ukraine said on Monday that Russian forces were “very far” from capturing the eastern town of Bakhmut and that fighting raged on around the administration building where the Wagner mercenary group claimed to have raised the Russian flag.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command told Reuters that it was unclear where Russian forces had raised their flag and that they had falsely claimed to have captured the city.

“They raised the flag over some kind of toilet. They attached it to the side of who knows what, hung their rag and said they had captured the city. Well good, let them think they’ve taken it,” the official, Serhiy Cherevatyi, said by telephone.