The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said late on Sunday that his forces have raised the Russian flag over the administration building of the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine.
"From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken," Prigozhin said in an audio message posted by his press service on the Telegram messaging app. "The enemy is concentrated in the western parts."
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report. Prigozhin has issued some premature success claims before.