Ukraine continues the battle for Soledar-Russia
2023.01.12 09:05
Ukraine continues the battle for Soledar-Russia
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – On Thursday, a Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Donetsk region said that the Ukrainian town of Soledar still had “pockets of resistance,” refuting claims that Russian forces had taken it.
On Wednesday, the powerful leader of the Wagner private military group whose soldiers are fighting to take the town, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, stated that Russian forces were in “complete control” of Soledar.
Those assertions have been mocked by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy, and independent analysts believe that fighting is likely ongoing in the town.
In an online broadcast, military figure and Russian-installed local politician Andrei Bayevsky stated, “At the moment, there are still some small pockets of resistance in Soledar.”
“Our troops keep pushing the enemy in these areas. The operation has been going well overall, and the western suburbs of Soledar are already completely under our control,” he continued.
The situation in and around the town has received little attention from the Russian defense ministry and Kremlin. The Russian defense ministry only mentioned that offensive operations in the Donetsk region were continuing “successfully,” without mentioning Soledar, in Thursday’s daily military briefing.
Soledar was shown on a map that was shown at the briefing straddling areas that were marked as being under Russian control, but it did not show any recent fighting or significant hits on Ukrainian forces in the area.
The town’s capture by Russian forces would be Russia’s first territorial advance in the conflict since July of last year.
Additionally, Western military experts refuted Prigozhin’s claims that his forces had taken the town. “Despite recent Russian advances, Russian forces have not yet fully captured Soledar,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War wrote.
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