Status: 01/11/2023 11:13 a.m
The situation in the embattled Soledar is unclear. Ukraine denies that the place in Donbass was taken by Russia. The head of the Wagner mercenaries had said so. The Kremlin says there is “progress” on the ground.
Kyiv has denied the capture of the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar by the Russian mercenary group Wagner. “Soledar was, is and always will be Ukrainian,” the Ukrainian army said in the online service Telegram.
The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, the Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin, reported the capture of the place on Tuesday evening. At the same time, however, he had declared that fighting would continue in the center.
The Ukrainian government announced in the evening that its soldiers continued to resist.
Dark green: Russian army advancing. Hatched: areas annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/01/10/2023
The US “Institute for the Study of the War” questioned the complete control of the city by the Wagner troops: There was only visual confirmation that the Wagner troops had advanced into the city center on January 10, they said think tank in their analysis via Twitter.
In view of the dynamics of the house-to-house fighting, it is unclear whether the entire city is really under the control of the mercenaries.
Moscow reports “progress”
The Presidential Office in Moscow announced that the Russian military was making “progress” around Soledar. There is a “positive dynamic” in the military situation there.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Russian airborne units had surrounded Soledar from the north and south, while Russian air forces had attacked Ukrainian positions in the town. In its daily briefing, the Defense Ministry said Russian assault units are fighting around Soledar.
The information has not yet been independently verified.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Heavy fighting in Donetsk
Around ten and a half months after the Russian attack on Ukraine, the fighting in Donetsk is currently particularly fierce. The cities of Soledar and Bakhmut are of strategic importance: they are part of the Ukrainian defense against the conurbation between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
From the Russian point of view, taking the territory would be a significant step towards conquering the entire Donbass – one of the Kremlin’s war aims.