Bakhmut’s battles are among the fiercest since the beginning of the war
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces were still participating in the battles of Solidar, the city north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine where the fighting is concentrated.
The ministry’s statement came after a statement by the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in which he said that his units “have taken control of the entire territory of Solidar”, stressing that no other military units have participated in the fighting. .
According to BBC News Moscow correspondent Will Vernon, Prigozhin could use any victory to improve Wagner’s fighting reputation in the eyes of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Statements from the Ministry of Defense came as if they contradicted the group’s statements, as Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in the Daily Military Brief: “Soledar is still besieged from the north and south by units of the Russian Airborne Forces. The force is raiding enemy strongholds. Forces are participating.” Attacking in city battles.
Kiev has previously said its forces are solid. A morning communiqué from the Ukrainian military only hinted at Solidar, naming the city as one of many bombed out in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
“Soledar is not under the control of the Russian army,” Serhiy Chervaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the east, told local media. Separately, he told BBC Ukraine that “the fighting is still going on” in Solidar.
For its part, the Kremlin also said it was making “progress” in military operations around Solidar and that its forces had “positive momentum,” but a Kremlin spokesman did not confirm the city’s fall.
Solidar’s fall, if verified, will be a major boost for Prigozhin, especially after his statement on Tuesday evening that “no other military forces are involved in the fighting in the city,” according to the BBC’s Moscow correspondent Will Vernon.
Prigozhin posted her photo in military uniform surrounded by Wagner fighters, without mentioning their location.
image copyright Reuters
The head of the Wagner group had announced the seizure of Solidar by his forces.
Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti, released another photo of Prigozhin with armed fighters, saying it was taken in the Solidar salt mines.
Analysts had repeatedly hinted at the existence of tensions in relations between the Russian army and Wagner after Prigozhin’s public criticism. Military leaders, accused of “disengagement from the reality of the war in Ukraine”.
The appointment of Colonel Alexander Lapin to the post of head of the Russian ground units came yesterday as a veiled message to Wagner’s commander, stating: “Don’t play games with the army”, as Lapin was among those criticized by Prigozhin .
The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Center for Strategic Communications has accused Russia’s private military company Wagner of waging what it described as “psychological warfare”.
The center said on the Telegram website that the photo, which allegedly showed Wagner’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in the salt caves in the town of Solidar, Donetsk region, was taken in another region.
The center released a photo of the salt caves near Volodymyrivka in the Donetsk region to prove what it says.
The center added: “It appears that Prigozhin’s location does not correspond to reality, and he is not in the Solidar mines.”
image copyright Reuters
A prominent Ukrainian military blogger, Yury Butusov, who is currently in Solidar alongside Ukrainian forces, wrote on Facebook on the evening of January 10 that “our forces are not surrounded.”
Solidar is located in the Donetsk region, 15 kilometers from the city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to control for months.
Ukraine said this week that its fighters have withstood intense attacks on the city.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was a “difficult situation” in the Donetsk region in his daily evening speech on Tuesday. He praised the “courage” of Ukrainian soldiers in defending Solidar.
In parallel, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on reports that the total amount of international military assistance to Ukraine is already comparable to Russia’s annual defense budget.
“So far, we see that NATO member states, led by the United States, are confirming their readiness to continue allocating money and pumping weapons into Ukraine,” Peskov said.
Military analysts differ in their estimation of Solidar’s strategic value, but if Russian forces manage to control it, it will constitute a symbolic victory for the Kremlin, with Moscow unable to control any strategic sites since the summer of 2022.
