Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhail Podlyak said that the training of Ukrainian forces on the Patriot systems that they will receive from the United States and Germany will continue for 3 months, stressing that these systems will be an essential component of the Ukrainian air defense system in the future.
This comes while ambiguity still surrounds the fate of the strategic city of Solidar in Donetsk Province, as the owner of the Russian private military Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed the full control of his forces over it, which Kyiv denies, noting that the battles in the city are still continuing.
The Russian military website “Rebar” also reported that Wagner’s forces took full control of the town of Opetnoye, which served as an advanced line of defense for the Ukrainian army on the city of Bakhmut from the south.
For its part, Russian media said that the Ukrainian army is trying to regain the important defensive positions it lost in the town using artillery and tanks, adding that Wagner’s forces also advanced from the east and are combing the neighborhoods and strengthening the positions they took control of.
And Prigozhin said – in a statement on his account on Telegram – that Solidar was completely cleared and combed from the units of the Ukrainian army.
He added that civilians were evacuated and the forces that refused to surrender were eliminated, stressing that about 500 Ukrainian forces were killed, and that the entire city was filled with their corpses.
Prigozhin concluded his statement by emphasizing the necessity of starting a combing operation for underground tunnels and removing mines, noting that it is not possible to talk about any humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian soldiers from the city.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that the airborne forces have imposed a siege on the city of Solidar from the north and south, adding that its forces continue to fight inside the city.
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that fighting continues in Solidar, and that the Donetsk front is “steadfast,” he said.
According to the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, fierce fighting continues on the Solidar front, and Ukrainian soldiers are still holding out in the area, as he put it.
Serhiy Chervaty, spokesman for the Eastern Region Operations Command of the Ukrainian army, confirmed that the battles are continuing in the strategic city, and that the Ukrainian army is working to restore balance to the defensive lines, denying any withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from it.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called for not rushing to declare victory in Solidar, indicating that there is a positive dynamic in the progress of the Russian forces, but official announcements must be waited for.
defensive capabilities
On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed his country’s continuation in increasing its defense capabilities and securing all the needs of the Russian armed forces.
Putin pointed out – during his presidency of the first meeting of the Russian government in the new year – to the need to achieve solutions in the near future to issues related to independent sovereign development, as he put it.
For its part, the Ukrainian presidency said that Lithuania pledged to transfer air defense systems and anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine, after a meeting held by Zelensky in Lviv with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Noseda.
The Polish president said – according to the Ukrainian Interfax agency – that his country will be among the countries that will supply Ukraine with Leopard tanks, while the President of Lithuania affirmed his country’s commitment to providing defense assistance to Ukraine.
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, considered that the partnership with the European Union is more important than ever, and that there is a need to increase the level of military support provided to Ukraine.
Stoltenberg also welcomed the announcement by the United States and other countries to provide new weapons to Kyiv.
In the file of sanctions and counter-sanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it had added 36 British personalities to the ban list from entering Russia, including ministers, law enforcement representatives and journalists.
assignments
In another context, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the appointment of Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov as commander of the Russian Forces Group in Ukraine.
The ministry also announced the appointment of Air Force Commander Sergey Suvorukhin and Ground Forces Commander Oleg Salikov. Two deputy commanders of the Russian forces in Ukraine.
The ministry said that these appointments come within the framework of raising the level of leadership of the Russian forces in Ukraine, and that they are related to expanding the volume of tasks and improving the level of quality of all types of support and the effectiveness of managing the group of forces.
On the ground, the Regional Defense Center of the pro-Russian Donetsk forces announced that a civilian was killed and two others were wounded in Ukrainian shelling on areas under their control.
The pro-Russian forces said that the Ukrainian forces bombed with heavy artillery and rocket launchers neighborhoods in the north and west of Donetsk, in addition to the cities of Makeyevka and Gorlovka and a number of towns bordering the battle lines in the vicinity of Donetsk.
The press service of the owner of the Wagner Military Company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, also said that its forces had found the body of one of the missing Britons in the city of Solidar.
For its part, the Military Administration in Kherson Province in southern Ukraine stated that the Russians had bombed the entire territory of the southern province in the past hours more than 90 times, using heavy artillery and mortars.
She added that the bombing targeted residential neighborhoods, the maternity hospital in the city, and private facilities, and resulted in the death of one person and the injury of others.
