Russia’s Wagner Group has recently claimed control over the heavily contested city of Bakhmut in the Donbass region of Ukraine.

“It’s the 20th of May, 2023. This afternoon at 12:00pm, Bakhmut was completely taken,” claimed owner Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video recently posted on the internet. If true, Prighozin’s statements mark the end of one of the bloodiest battles in Europe since the second world war, with an estimated100,000 casualties being suffered by Russia alone. If Bakhmut is indeed entirely under Russian control, this also provides the Kremlin with a much needed opportunity to brand the war in Ukraine as a success. “Russian TV went into a full frenzy of celebration” wrote AP journalists Dasha Litvinova and Samya Kullab, “there were comparisons to the Red Army liberating Berlin in 1945.” Although Bakhmut is of little to no strategic importance, Russia has clearly expended vast amounts of men and resources to take the city. While a battered Russia licks its wounds, Ukraine’s next move will most likely be to withdraw to the next reasonable defensive position. With the fighting in Bakhmut seemingly coming to a close, their still however appears to be no end in sight to conflict.