Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that fighting continued in Soledar, a small town in eastern Ukraine that the Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed to have captured.
Several figures of the belligerent authorities, both Russian and Ukrainian, had already been very careful this Wednesday in their statements about the situation in Soledar, the target of heavy fighting in recent days, despite the words of the leader of the Russian Wagner group , Yevgeny Prigojine, who claimed that only his units had taken full control of the place northeast of Bakhmut.
However, Prigojine then admitted that “urban battles” continue against pockets of resistance in the center of the city, leaving the extent of the Russian mercenary group’s control over this small town, which had a population of just over 10,000 before the war, uncertain.
In his daily speech, Zelensky stated that “the terrorist state [Rússia] and its propagandists try to fake a success in Soledar, but the battle continues,” continues: “We are doing everything we can to strengthen the Ukrainian defense without a break, even for a day” in the eastern part of the Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
Prigojin-led mercenaries play a leading role in the battle for Bakhmut, a city of questionable strategic importance but which has acquired strong symbolic value as both sides have fought for control for months.
Bakhmut is located in Donetsk, in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, one of four regions Russia said it annexed to its territory at the end of last September, along with Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia, after doing the same with Crimea in 2014.
According to a Ukrainian official quoted by the Associated Press (AP), the fate of Soledar was hanging in the balance this Wednesday, as Ukrainian troops resisted one of the most intense and bloody battles since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. last. year.
The official, based in Soledar and requesting anonymity, said Russian forces used bombers, rockets and mortars in an attack he described as brutal.
According to the same source, Russian forces are patterning sending a first wave of soldiers, many of whom are members of the Wagner group, who suffer heavy casualties as they approach Ukrainian defense lines.
If Ukrainian troops also suffer losses and are exhausted, a second wave of highly trained Russian special forces will be sent.
Analysts believe that Soledar has questionable strategic military importance, but it would motivate Russian forces, which have suffered several setbacks in recent weeks, to take the neighboring city of Bakhmut and advance into other regions of the province Donetsk under control. Ukrainian.
Russian forces achieved “a positive momentum in advance” in Soledar, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, but did not confirm his achievement: “We will not rush and wait for official statements”
Known for its mining and salt processing, Soledar is located just 10 kilometers north of the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces want to encircle.
In the AP’s analysis, taking Bakhmut would cut Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province.
Donetsk and the neighboring province of Lugansk, which make up the Donbass region on the border with Russia, were the main territorial targets Moscow declared in its invasion of Ukraine, but the fighting remains in a stalemate.
Soledar, known for the extraction and processing of salt, has little intrinsic value, but is located just 10 kilometers north of the city of Bakhmut, which Russian troops want to encircle.
One of the features that distinguishes the Battle of Soledar from other battle fronts, characterized by artillery fire and aerial bombardment, is that it is largely fought at the entrances of abandoned salt mine tunnels, which stretch for about 200 meters. kilometers.
Soledar’s impeachment would “make holding Bakhmut much more precarious for Ukraine,” Michael Kofman, director of Russia Studies at the nonprofit research organization CAN in Arlington, Virginia, noted Wednesday.
However, he noted that this battle, with heavy casualties, could be both a Russian victory and a defeat.
“I don’t think the result in Bakhmut is that important compared to what it cost Russia to achieve it,” Kofman said via Twitter.
The Wagner group, now supposedly comprising a large contingent of convicts recruited from Russian prisons, leads the assault on Soledar and Bakhmut.
According to intelligence sources quoted by the AP, the Wagner Group is estimated to account for up to a quarter of all Russian fighters in Ukraine, and a success on these eastern fronts could increase its leader, Prigojine,’s influence in the Kremlin after he openly criticized expressed at choices made by military leaders and the lack of supplies of military equipment.
The events of this Wednesday give further strength to Prigojine’s arguments, when Russia replaced the commander of its armed forces in Ukraine, General Serguei Surovikin, with the current Chief of the Army General Staff, Valeri Guerasimov.
In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry said Guerasimov’s appointment was explained by an “expansion of missions to be carried out” and the need for “greater interaction” between the army’s elements.
Source: DN
