Russia Has Suffered '100,000 Casualties' In Bakhmut, Biden Reveals: 'Pretty Devastated City'

President Joe Biden has revealed the extent of the devastation in the battle between the Ukrainian and Russian forces over the besieged city of Bakhmut.

Speaking at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Sunday, Biden claimed Russia has suffered massive casualties in its months-long campaign to capture Bakhmut.

"Well, the truth of the matter is the Russians have suffered over 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut. That's hard to make up," Biden said.

The president also described the situation in the beleaguered Ukrainian city after it witnessed the fiercest battle in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

"So, whether or not there is — there are troops in Bakhmut occupying — there's [sic] not many buildings left standing in Bakhmut. It's a pretty devastated city," Biden said.

Earlier this month, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby revealed newly declassified intelligence suggesting Russia had suffered 80,000 casualties since December 2022, most of which were recorded in Bakhmut.

Kirby even compared the grim situation in the Ukrainian city with some of the bloodiest battles during World War II, including the Battle of the Bulge and the Guadalcanal campaign.

Despite incurring massive casualties, Russia claimed victory against the Ukrainian forces in its objective to capture Bakhmut.

On Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, claimed that Bakhmut was "completely taken."

"We completely took the whole city, from house to house," Prigozhin said.

News of the Wagner Group's victory in Bakhmut reached the Kremlin. According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Putin offered his congratulations for "the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk," referring to the Soviet-Russian name for Bakhmut.

But while Russia claimed it has the upper hand in Bakhmut, Ukraine's ground forces said it retained control of an "insignificant part" of the city, Kyiv Post reported.

Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, said they "continue to advance on the flanks in the suburbs of Bakhmut" despite controlling only a small portion of the city.

In a defiant tone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that Bakhmut is still under his country's control.

Zelensky said that the city was "not occupied" by Russia as of Sunday and that "there are no two or three interpretations of those words," BBC News reported.

Zelensky previously caused confusion about the status of the Ukrainian city after he earlier stated that "today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts."

The Ukrainian presidential office immediately clarified that Zelensky did not say that Bakhmut had fallen to the Russian forces.

Located in the north of the temporarily Russian-occupied Donetsk region, Moscow launched its offensive campaign to capture Bakhmut, a major transportation hub for the Ukrainian military, on Aug. 1, 2022.