Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comparison of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) with Hiroshima, saying that both were destroyed by the US.
During the G-7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where the US had dropped the first nuclear bomb, on Sunday, May 22nd, Zelenskyy likened the ruins of Artyomovsk, where the Russian military and the Wagner private military company defeated the Ukrainian forces and seized its control, with the destruction of Hiroshima in the second world war.
Although Russian forces claimed on Saturday, May 20th to have captured Artyomovsk, Ukraine denies losing full control of the city.
“Artyomovsk has been completely liberated as a result of offensive actions by Wagner assault detachments supported by artillery and aviation of the Yug Group of Forces”, the Russian Defence Ministry said in its statement on Sunday, May 21st.
“Aviation and artillery of the Yug Group of Forces have foiled enemy’s attempts to counter-attack from the areas of Konstantinovka, Bogdanovka, and Krasnoye (Donetsk People’s Republic)”, the ministry added.
Zelenskyy told the reporters, “I’ll tell you openly: Photographs of ruined Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements. Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined.”
He said in the press conference that Ukrainian forces were continuing to fight inside Artyomovsk and were carrying out “important tasks.”
Zelenskyy further added that Ukrainian forces were still in Artyomovsk but he wouldn’t disclose their location. Their very presence confirms the fact that Artyomovsk has not been captured by the Russian Federation as of today, Zelenskyy stated.
However, the Russian defence ministry stated that “a road bridge used by the Ukrainian troops to deliver reinforcements to Artyomovsk and an ammunition depot of the 60th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been neutralised close to Krasnoye.”
It also said, “Up to 100 Ukrainian troops and mercenaries, one tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, five pick-up trucks, one Polish-made Krab artillery system, and one Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit have been eliminated in this direction during the day.”
The battered president is hoping that after the war he would see the same kind of successful reconstruction that Hiroshima experienced in places like Artyomovsk.
The hastily-organised visit of Zelenskyy to allegedly monopolise the G7 summit and the comparison of Artyomovsk with Hiroshima prompted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova to mock him for his linking. She stated in her Telegram channel on Sunday, that the Ukrainian president “compared Hiroshima, destroyed by an American nuclear bomb to Artyomovsk.”
Zakharova further mocked him by saying, “Well done, because the White House orchestrated both things.”
