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The Russian Ministry of Defense assured this January 13 that its troops took control of Soledar, in eastern Ukraine. However, kyiv claimed that its forces are still defending the city after a night of heavy fighting. Earlier claims by the Wagner Group about the Russian capture of the city were debunked this week. In the middle are hundreds of civilians, including children, trapped in one of the bloodiest battles in almost 11 months of war.
Soledar, the current battle center of the Russian war in the Ukraine, besieged and with an uncertain fate.
The Russian Ministry of Defense assured this Friday, January 13, that its men took the strategic city in eastern Ukrainian territory after the “bloody fighting” with the invaded country’s army.
However, that information disseminated by Russian state news agencies has not been independently verified.
Although it would be Moscow’s first official statement on the matter, the claims made this week by the Russian Wagner mercenary group that its men had conquered Soledar were denied by the Ukrainian army, which called them “false” and released videos about the continuation of the confrontations.
Andrey Baevsky, a military man imposed by the Kremlin as a deputy in Donetsk, the province to which Soledar belongs, assured that there were “small pockets of Ukrainian resistance” there, suggesting that the invaders would be close to taking control.
But from kyiv the information is different.
“It is a difficult phase, but we will win”: Ukraine affirms that continues to defend Soledar
In the last hours, shortly before the statement by the Defense Ministry headed by Sergei Shoigu, the kyiv Armed Forces reported that after a night of intense fighting, its military continues to defend the city.
Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, stated that “it is not true” that Russian troops have taken Soledar and that “fighting is taking place in the city.”
On the outskirts of Soledar, Ukrainian soldiers entrenched themselves in fortified digs in the woods in the dead of winter as explosions echoed in the distance, Reuters footage showed.
A soldier assured that the intensity of the shelling increased by around 70%, but that the Ukrainian forces still hold their positions.
A strategic city for the future of war
The small town, known for its salt mines, has become one of the bloodiest battlefields since Vladimir Putin ordered war against his neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
The area is strategic due to its location, which would open a corridor to capture Bakhmut, a city that the Russians have been seeking to take by force for months.
“The situation is difficult but stable. We are stopping the enemy (…) We are counterattacking,” said the 24-year-old soldier.
For her part, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Malyar, assured that “this is a difficult phase of the war, but we will win. There is no doubt.”
“The enemy has thrown almost all the main forces in the direction of Donetsk and is maintaining a high offensive intensity. Our fighters are bravely trying to maintain the defense,” the official added.
The situation inside the city has not been verified by any independent body, due to the dangerous fighting.
In a video address broadcast late on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked two units in Soledar who he said were “holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy.” He did not elaborate.
The brutal war of attrition claims the lives of thousands of soldiers that both sides of the conflict need for the decisive battles ahead, while hundreds of civilians, including children, find themselves caught in the middle of the attacks in a city of 10,000 inhabitants. before hostilities.
With Reuters and local media
