Fate of Ukraine’s Soledar hangs in the balance

GBNEWS24DESK//

Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in intense fighting yesterday over the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine — a stepping stone in Moscow’s push to capture the entire Donbas region — with the Russians appearing to have the upper hand.

The mercenary group Wagner, which has spearheaded the assault, on Tuesday claimed to have taken control of the small salt-mining town but said pockets of Ukrainian resistance were holding out in the centre.

Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday that airborne units had cut off Soledar from the north and south. But Ukraine’s military denied that Soledar had fallen and said its defensive lines had not been breached.

“Heavy fighting continues in Soledar,” Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram yesterday.

“The enemy has again replaced its units after sustaining losses, has increased the number of Wagner (Russian mercenaries) and is trying to burst through our forces’ defence and fully seize the city, but is not having success.”

The Kremlin also stopped short of claiming victory and acknowledged suffering heavy casualties.

“Let’s not rush, let’s wait for official statements. There is a positive dynamic in progress,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the situation on the ground.

A Reuters photographer who has reached the outskirts in recent days said many residents had fled along roads out of the town in perishing cold. She said plumes of smoke could be seen rising over the town and the incoming artillery fire was relentless.

A victory in Soledar, which had a pre-war population of around 10,000, would have symbolic, military and commercial value for Moscow after battlefield setbacks in recent months.

Elsewhere, the head of the Kherson military administration in southern Ukraine told a news briefing that Russian forces were keeping up their shelling of the provincial capital, which they vacated in November.

Over the previous 24 hours, about 40 infrastructure buildings had been destroyed along with many homes. The children’s hospital was shelled again overnight, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the situation in the areas of Ukraine that Russia says it has annexed was “difficult in places”.

However, Putin, speaking at a televised meeting with officials, said Russia had all the resources it needed to improve life in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow unilaterally claimed to have annexed in September.

In an interview with AFP, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailov Podolyak said Ukraine will be able to win the war this year if Western powers increase supplies of weapons, particularly long-range missile systems.