RUSSIAN MERCENARIES TAKE CONTROL OF KEY TOWN
Salt-mining Soledar has symbolic, military and commercial value for Moscow
THE battle for Soledar raged in sub-zero temperatures yesterday, with Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group claiming to have taken control of the salt mining town in eastern Ukraine, as its fighters poured fire on a pocket of resistance in the centre.
Kyiv said earlier its forces were holding out. The Ukrainian military’s morning summary made one mention of Soledar, listing the town as one of several being shelled in the Donetsk region.
Conditions on the ground could not be verified.
Russian commanders have made the capture of Soledar a key objective in a campaign to take the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut and Ukraine’s larger eastern Donbas region.
“Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar. A cauldron has been formed in the centre of the city in which urban fighting is going on,” Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday.
“The number of prisoners will be announced tomorrow,” he added, giving no further details.
Russia’s capture of Soledar and its huge salt mines would have symbolic, military and commercial value for Russia. But the situation in and around Soledar appeared fluid.
The British Defence Ministry earlier said Russian troops and Wagner fighters had probably taken control of most of Soledar after four days of advances.
But Prigozhin’s comment that fighting continued in Soledar’s centre suggested Russian control was incomplete, despite his statement that all of the town was in Wagner’s grasp.
The Russian state RIA news agency later issued a report saying that Wagner Group took over Soledar ’s salt mines following “fierce fighting”.
The salt mines are located in the suburbs of the town. Washington had said Prigozhin may want personal control of the area’s mines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the military command did not mention control of Soledar on Tuesday evening.
Zelenskyy repeated his call for more Western weapons, saying Russia was gathering its forces to intensify its campaign. He did not provide details.
But Ukraine’s Defence Ministry tweeted late on Tuesday, “Even after suffering colossal losses, Russia is still maniacally trying to seize Soledar — home to the largest salt mine in Europe.”
Ukraine earlier said its forces were still holding onto positions in Soledar, withstanding assaults by wave after wave of Russian forces seeking their first battlefield victory for months.