RUSSIA SAYS IT CONTROLS BATTERED UKRAINE TOWN OF SOLEDAR

Russia said Friday its forces had wrested control of the warscarred town of Soledar in east Ukraine, Moscow’s first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks.

“On the evening of Jan. 12, the liberation of the city of Soledar was completed,” the defense ministry announced, claiming this would pave the way for more “successful offensive operations” in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine denied the Russian claim and said “severe fighting” was on in the nearly completely destroyed town that is now the epicenter of the war.

“Ukraine’s armed forces have the situation under control in difficult conditions,” said Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesperson for the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Both sides have conceded heavy losses, with Moscow eager to sell any win back home after repeated battlefield humiliations and Ukraine desperate to hold and win back ground.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed on Thursday that Ukrainian forces defending Soledar and neighboring Bakhmut would be armed with everything they need in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Observers are divided over the strategic significance of Soledar, a salt mining town with a prewar population of around 10,000 people.

It is the site of huge salt mines which have commercial value and could also be used to store weapons and ammunition out of range of Ukrainian missiles.

‘Small victory’

It could act as a bridgehead for Russia to develop its offensive for Bakhmut, a larger town nearby that Russian forces have been attacking for months.

The Russian defense ministry said Friday that Soledar’s capture “makes it possible to cut off the supply routes of Ukrainian troops” there and surround them.

Moscow’s last major gains were in June and July last year with the capture of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in the eastern Lugansk region.

It has suffered several key defeats since, including its retreat from Kherson city in the south late last year.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a military observation group, said in an analytical note that Russian forces had likely already captured Soledar on Wednesday.

“But this small-scale victory is unlikely to presage an imminent encirclement of Bakhmut,” it cautioned.