Bakhmut claims and Belgorod raid: 24 May 2023 in review
A look back at two contested front-line stories that were unfolding around 24 May 2023, in Bakhmut and in Russia's Belgorod Oblast.
What was the state of play on 24 May 2023, after days of competing claims from the front? Two storylines dominated: the fight for Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast and a cross-border incursion into Russia's Belgorod Oblast.
Bakhmut: a claim and a rebuttal
On 20 May 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters had captured all of Bakhmut. Ukraine's Defence Ministry rejected the claim, saying its forces still held a district on the westernmost edge of the city. The battle for Bakhmut, fought between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces, was later regarded by some military analysts as the bloodiest battle since World War II.
Belgorod Oblast: an incursion reported
On 22 May 2023, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod Oblast, said that Ukrainian "sabotage groups" had entered Grayvoronsky District. Ukrainian media reported that the operation was being carried out by Russian opposition groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion. The Freedom of Russia Legion said it had captured the Russian towns of Kozinka and Gora-Podol. A bridge over the Vorskla near Grayvoron was destroyed in an explosion.
By 24 May 2023, then, the two accounts stood side by side: a disputed claim of victory in Bakhmut, and a reported cross-border raid whose extent was described mainly by the groups involved and by Belgorod's governor.
