What’s going on at Soledar? Uncertainty remains, Saturday, January 14, on the fate of this small town in eastern Ukraine which Russia assured the day before to have taken control after a fierce battle, an announcement denied by kyiv . “The fights for Soledar continue”, assured in its evening report the Ukrainian staff without further details. In a press release, the Russian Ministry of Defense for its part affirmed that it had been completed “January 12 in the evening” the “liberation of the city of Soledar”. Follow our live.
The Russian army salutes the Wagner mercenaries. In a rare sign of recognition between these two structures which have often entered into rivalry on the ground in Ukraine, the Russian army then hailed in a message the “courageous actions” of the fighters of the Wagner mercenary group, whose men led “the direct assault on the residential areas of Soledar”.
Ukrainian statements. The spokesman for the Eastern command of the Ukrainian army, Serguiï Tcherevaty, had affirmed in the day that his troops were keeping the situation “under control in difficult conditions” face “to the best units (from the Russian group of mercenaries) Wagner and other special forces” Russians. “It’s a difficult phase of the war”had for her part underlined the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, Ganna Maliar.
What about Bakhmout? According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an organization based in the United States, the capture of Soledar is however “unlikely to portend an imminent encirclement of Bakhmout”the main target of the Russian army, located 15 kilometers southwest of Soledar.
