Russian-Ukraine latest news today: Kyiv aims to ‘encircle’ Putin’s troops in Bakhmut as Wagner claims to have captured city

Ukraine has denied claims by Russia that it has taken full control of Bakhmut but warned the situation in the key battle town is “critical”.

Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s defence minister, pushed back on the claim by Yevgeny Prigozhin that his Wagner Group of mercenaries had seized the town  around lunchtime.

“Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical,” she said on the Telegram messaging app.

“As of now, our defenders control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area and the private sector.”

Speaking at the G7 summit in Japan on Sunday, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky drew a parallel between the destruction of Bakhmut and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

“I’ll tell you openly: Photographs of ruined Hiroshima absolutely remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements,” Mr Zelensky told reporters after laying flowers at the cenotaph to victims of the 1945 atrocity.

“Nothing left alive, all the buildings ruined.”

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that a scheduled meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky fell through on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan because the Ukrainian president was late.

“I had an interview, a bilateral one with Ukraine here in this room at 3.15pm. We waited and received the information that he was late,” Mr Lula was quoted as saying by Reuters.

He added that Mr Zelensky “did not show up … Clearly he had appointments and he couldn’t come.”

Earlier Zelensky had earlier played down the fact he did not meet with Lula.

On the sidelines of the summit Mr Lula also said that the Russia-Ukraine war should be discussed at the UN and not at the G7 meeting.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has assured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of “whatever is possible” to find a solution to bring an end to the continuing war amid Russia’s full-scale invasion as the two leaders met in Hiroshima along the sidelines of the G7 summit, my colleague Arpan Rai reports.

“Over the past one-and-a-half years, we have spoken on the phone but… after a long time, we have an opportunity to meet. The war in Ukraine is a very big issue for the whole world. It has had many different impacts on the whole world,” Mr Modi told the Ukrainian president as the two leaders sat down for their first face-to-face talks with their delegation on Saturday.

Mr Modi added: “But I don’t see this as a political or economic issue, for me this is an issue of humanity, an issue of human values.”

Russia has warned of a response and said that the transfer of F16 fighter jets to Ukraine would raise the question of Nato’s involvement in the conflict.

In remarks published early on Monday, Russia’s ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on the embassy’s Telegram messaging channel: “There is no infrastructure for the operation of the F16 in Ukraine and the needed number of pilots and maintenance personnel is not there either.

“What will happen if the American fighters take off from Nato airfields, controlled by foreign ‘volunteers’?”

He added: “It is important that the United States be fully aware of the Russian response.”

The remarks come days after US president Joe Biden on Friday endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F16 fighter jets.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky assured Mr Biden that the aircraft would not be used to go into Russian territory.

Russia has announced indictments in absentia for a judge and prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who issued a war crimes warrant for president Vladimir Putin.

A statement from Russia’s national Investigative Committee said the judge, Rosario Salvatore Aitala, and prosecutor Khan Karim Asad Ahmad are both charged with “preparing to attack a representative of a foreign country enjoying international protection in order to complicate international relations”.

The committee also said other ICC officials are being investigated.

The March warrant against Mr Putin accuses him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, and the court also charged Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights.

Russia’s claimed victory in Bakhmut would open the the door to more grinding battles nearby, an analyst has said.

These would take place in the direction of Sloviansk or Kostiantynivka, 12 miles away from Bakhmut, Kateryna Stepanenko of the US-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank, told the Associated Press.

The flanks regained by Ukraine around Bakhmut in recent days are located near two highways that lead to Chasiv Yar, a town 6 miles from the city that serves as a key logistics supply route, one dubbed the “road of life.”

Ukrainian forces passing this road often came under fire from Russians positioned along nearby strategic heights. Armoured vehicles and pickup trucks driving toward the city to replenish Ukrainian troops were frequently destroyed. With the high plains now under Ukrainian control, its forces have more breathing room.

“This will help us design new logistic chains to deliver ammunition in and evacuate the injured or killed boys,” said Taras Deiak, a commander of a special unit of a volunteer battalion, speaking from inside the city on Thursday, two days before Russia claimed it controlled the city.

“Now it is easier to deliver supplies, rotate troops, [carry out] evacuations.”

Some analysts have said that Ukraine’s tactical gains in the rural area outside urban Bakhmut could be more significant than they seem.

“It was almost like the Ukrainians just took advantage of the fact that, actually, the Russian lines were weak,” said Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews.

“The Russian army has suffered such high losses and is so worn out around Bakhmut that … it cannot go forward anymore.”