Ukraine: Fighting continues in Bakhmut as Russian drone strikes hit Odesa

Fighting raged in and around Bakhmut as Ukraine mocked Russian claims to have captured the administrative centre of the eastern Ukrainian city, saying Russian forces had raised a victory flag over “some kind of toilet”.

Finland, which shares a 1,300km border with Russia, will later on Tuesday join Nato, just over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The battle for the mining city and logistics hub of Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the conflict with heavy casualties on both sides and the city largely destroyed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, said on Sunday his troops had raised a Russian flag on the city-centre administrative building even though Ukrainian soldiers still held some western positions.

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But Ukraine’s military denied that claim and said fighting was raging around the city council building, as well as in other nearby towns.

“Bakhmut is Ukrainian and they have not captured anything and are very far from doing that,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for the eastern military command, said.

“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,” Mr Cherevatyi added.

The Ukrainian armed forces general staff said in an evening statement 45 enemy attacks had been repelled in total in the past 24 hours, with Bakhmut at the “epicentre of operations” along with the cities of Avdiivka and Maryinka further south.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

Russia launched up to 17 Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight, Ukraine's air force command said early on Tuesday, with its air-defence systems destroying 14 of them.

Yuriy Kruk, head of the regional military administration in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, said the region was struck by several drones and there was damage but he did not specify the extent.

Four civilians were killed and three wounded in Ukraine-controlled Donetsk, its governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Russia’s parliament speaker said western leaders have blood on their hands for supporting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the support had led to the creation of a “terrorist state” at Europe’s centre.

Vyacheslav Volodin, an ally of president Vladimir Putin, said the killing of prominent war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a bomb attack in St Petersburg over the weekend was a “terrorist act” committed by Kyiv.

Ukraine blamed “domestic terrorism” for the blast.

On Tuesday, Nato will welcome Finland as its 31st member in a flag-raising ceremony at its headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Finns to seek security under the umbrella of Nato’s collective defence pact, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Russia has also said it would strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions in response to Finland’s accession. – Reuters