The information coming from Soledar are still contradictory. Earlier this week, the Wagner Group claimed to have taken “total control” of the small mining town in eastern Ukraine. Now it’s been the Russian Ministry of Defense the one who, this Friday, after first contradicting the mercenary organization, has claimed victory. Meanwhile, kyiv continues to deny defeat and defends that its men they are still fighting to liberate the town.
[Disfrazarse con uniformes ucranianos y disparar a traición, la estrategia del Grupo Wagner en Soledar]
“Two units hold their positions and inflict significant losses on the enemy,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, in his daily part. Along the same lines, the Ukrainian army assured that its forces they don’t just “hold”but killed more than 100 enemy soldiers in a single attack on Soledar.
What does seem to have been confirmed is that, amid the noise of the artillery, hundreds of civilians remain in the city, virtually destroyed after weeks of heavy fighting. They are “more than 500” people, over 50 years of age, those who “try to survive in the middle of a bloodbath“, according to the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in an interview on Ukrainian state television.
Ukrainian serviceman Hryhorii, 42, of the 43rd Heavy Artillery Brigade emerges from a German Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzer, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, near Soledar.
the battles of Soledar and Bakhmut, separated by barely 10 kilometers, have become one of the longest and bloodiest of the war. Both armies, in fact, have compared the confrontation with “a meat grinder” that has already claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers from one side and the other. Sandriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, has even gone so far as to describe the contest as “Verdun in the 21st century”in reference to the longest battle of the First World War where there was a huge number of casualties.
[El Grupo Wagner desafía a Putin e intenta tomar el control del ejército del Kremlin en Ucrania]
In recent days, however, attacks by Russian forces have increased in frequency and intensity. But beyond the artillery, the bombardments and the street battles, the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, deployed in the area for months, they have also increased their level of sadism.
1/ Yevgeny Prigozhin’s apparently premature announcement of Soledar’s capture has reportedly led to a desperate push by Wagner to make it a reality. Wagner is fighting without regard for casualties, not just to gain Soledar, but for Prigozhin’s reputation.pic.twitter.com/92Ji0oQn68
—ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) January 12, 2023
On their Telegram channel they have begun posting videos and photos of Ukrainian soldiers apparently executed by the mercenaries as part of a campaign by the paramilitary organization to demonstrate its effectiveness as a fighting force and improve its reputation in Moscow.
The images have started circulating just at a time of infighting between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner Group. In fact, this same Friday, the head of the mercenaries, Eugeni Prigozhin, denounced that the forces inside Moscow were “trying to steal the wins” to his men. He refers to the statement issued by the Kremlin in which it was assured that Russian troops had taken Soledar, but without mentioning the private military company at any time.
[Putin sitúa al halcón del Kremlin al frente de su ejército para contener el ascenso del Grupo Wagner]
After Prigozhin’s criticism, Defense issued a second message to “clarify” the situation in which it recognized the role of the Wagner Group fighters in Soledar. “As for the direct assault on the city quarters occupied by the Ukrainian armed forces, this combat task was successfully accomplished thanks to the brave and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner assault detachments,” he says.
