Kyiv: On Wednesday, as Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claimed to have taken control and its fighters were focusing their fire on a pocket of resistance in the town centre, the battle for the salt mining town in eastern Ukraine raged in the bitter cold.
Earlier, Kiev claimed that its troops were resisting. Soledar was mentioned in the Ukrainian military's morning summary as one of several towns in the Donetsk region that were being shelled.
In a campaign to take the larger eastern Donbas region of Ukraine as well as the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut, Russian commanders have made the conquest of Soledar a top priority.
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"Wagner forces seized command of Soledar's entire territory. According to Russian news agencies, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed late on Tuesday that a cauldron had formed in the city's centre where urban fighting was taking place.
Tomorrow, the number of prisoners will be revealed, he added without providing any additional information.
The conquest of Soledar and its enormous salt mines would be valuable to Russia on a symbolic, military, and economic level. However, the environment in and around Soledar seemed unstable.
The majority of Soledar, according to the British Defense Ministry's earlier report, has likely been taken over by Russian forces and Wagner fighters after four days of advances. Prigozhin claimed that Wagner had complete control over the town, but his admission that fighting persisted in Soledar's centre suggested that Russian control was only partially complete.
Later, according to a report from the official Russian news agency RIA, Wagner Group took control of the salt mines in Soledar after "fierce fighting." The suburbs of the town are where the salt mines are. The mines in the region may be under Prigozhin's personal control, according to Washington.
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On Tuesday night, neither the military command nor Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned control of Soledar. Zelensky reiterated his call for more weapons from the West, claiming that Russia was assembling its forces to step up its campaign. He said nothing more specific.
But late on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry tweeted that "Russia is still maniacally trying to seize Soledar — home to the largest salt mine in Europe" despite having suffered "colossal losses."
Earlier, Ukraine reported that its forces were still defending their positions in Soledar against Russian forces pursuing their first battlefield victory in months.
Tuesday night, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar stated that the battle for the town was still going on.
She claimed that despite suffering significant personnel losses, the enemy was still actively storming. "Enemy fighters' dead bodies are just lying all over the approaches to our positions. Our soldiers are holding the line valiantly.
Early morning lows in the combat area were estimated to be around minus 12 Celsius. Earlier, some well-known Russian military bloggers urged caution regarding the situation in Soledar and claimed that fierce fighting continued throughout the night in the town's centre and surroundings.
After a string of humiliating retreats that lasted for a large portion of the second half of 2022, taking Soledar would be Russia's most significant victory since August. Russian forces have been engaged in combat to seize Bakhmut for months.
However, any victory would be extremely costly, with troops from both sides suffering significant casualties in some of the fiercest fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 11 months ago. The Kyiv government recently released images purportedly depicting dozens of dead Russian soldiers scattered across muddy fields.
One of the four provinces Moscow claims to have annexed three months ago, the Donetsk region, Moscow claims would be fully under its control if Bakhmut were captured.
A group of Ukrainian soldiers deployed near Bakhmut opened fire across a desolate snowy field with volleys of shells from a powerful anti-aircraft gun at what they claimed were Russian ground positions. One soldier with the moniker "Pilot" used a typical Ukrainian slur for Russian soldiers: "We're frying orcs." His team is informed of the locations of Russian bases by spotters or drones. When enemy forces advance, they periodically shell Russian bases and unleash hails of heavy fire: "If they creep in very actively, then we kill them in great numbers. Russian strikes late on Tuesday struck a fireworks factory, the regional governor said, adding that no one was hurt. This occurred hours after German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
On February 24, Russia allegedly launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine, citing Ukraine's close ties to the West and desire to join NATO as security threats. Moscow is charged by Kyiv and its allies with launching an unprovoked war to annex Ukrainian territory.
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Canada announced that it would purchase for Ukraine a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) made in the US. According to a US official, Ukrainian troops were scheduled to fly into the country soon to start receiving training on the Patriot air defence missiles that Washington promised Kyiv last month.
Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said in a statement posted by his embassy: "The US defence department's decision to organise a training course at Fort Sill in Oklahoma is yet another confirmation of Washington's de facto participation in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kyiv's Nazi criminals."