Russia Claims Control of Bakhmut as Offensive Action Decreases.

Russian state-owned media claims that Wagner Group mercenaries have taken control of about 90% of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the epicenter of heavy fighting for months. The reported advances in Bakhmut arrive as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited two different occupied regions in Ukraine that Moscow has claimed to have annexed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also visited some of Ukraine's front-line positions in the eastern city of Avdiivka. Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed that Russia was willing to fight for Bakhmut "at any cost," adding that Moscow was suffering heavy losses in the city.