The head of Wagner’s military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Wednesday that his forces had completely “liberated” the mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, killing about 500 pro-Ukraine troops, Reuters reported.

A few minutes earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked Russia’s previous claims to control part of the city and declared that the fighting was ongoing.

“The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to claim that part of our city of Soledar… is some kind of Russian possession,” Zelenskyy said in a video message, adding, “but the fighting continues.”

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin announced Tuesday that his forces were in control of the town of Soledar, but bandits were still moving toward the city center. On Wednesday, he did not mention the continuation of the fighting.

“I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar from units of the Ukrainian army… Ukrainian units that did not want to surrender were destroyed,” the message says.

Wagner’s troops “killed about 500 people. The whole city is littered with corpses of Ukrainian soldiers.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin called for “no rush” to declare victory in Soledar, while the Wagner mercenary group said it had taken control of the eastern Ukrainian town after months of intense fighting.

A video posted on social media by the Armed Forces of Ukraine shows their soldiers destroying a group of Wagner’s mercenaries during what is believed to be fighting in the eastern city of Soledar, while the astonishing footage shows Yevgeny Prigozhin’s fighters being pursued at every turn by a drone. Ukrainian troops.

Mercenaries of Wagner’s group, for their part, published a photo on Wednesday that they said showed they had succeeded in capturing the town of Soledar, near the strategic city of Bakhmut.