On Friday, Russia said its forces had taken control of the salt city of Soledar in eastern Ukraine overnight after days of relentless fighting, saying it was Moscow’s first major battlefield achievement after half a year of military setbacks.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the situation in the city. Kyiv said earlier on Friday that fighting there was still ongoing after what it called a “hot” night.
Russia said the capture of Soledar would cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger nearby town of Bakhmut and trap the remaining Ukrainian forces there. Russia has been trying to capture Bakhmut in a brutal war for several months now.
“The capture of Soledar became possible thanks to the constant shelling of the enemy by assault and army aircraft, missile forces and artillery of a group of Russian troops,” the Moscow Defense Ministry said.
Kyiv says Russia has thrown wave after wave of soldiers and mercenaries into a pointless fight over the bombed-out wasteland at Soledar, and US officials have said a Russian victory there, or even at Bakhmut, will make little difference in the overall war.
Soledar, which had a population of only 10,000 before the war, is located above the caves of the salt mines. Bakhmut, 10 times larger, is a large provincial district center.
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar go over to the Russians, it will not have a strategic impact on the war itself,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House on Thursday, “and certainly will not be to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.” .
The ultra-nationalist mercenary company Wagner, run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said it had seized Soledar on Wednesday, but so far the Russian defense ministry has remained silent.
“The night in Soledar was hot, the fighting continued,” Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Anna Malyar wrote in the Telegram messenger.
“The enemy has thrown almost all the main forces towards Donetsk and maintains a high intensity of the offensive. Our fighters are courageously trying to keep the defense,” she said, referring to the Donetsk region, which includes Soledar.
“This is a difficult stage of the war, but we will win. There is no doubt about that.”
Near Soledar on Thursday, Ukrainian soldiers dug into well-fortified trenches in the winter forest. Explosions echoed in the distance.
A 24-year-old soldier using the call sign BUK told Reuters that the shelling had increased by about 70 percent, but the forces were still holding their ground.
“The situation is difficult, but stable. We hold back the enemy … we fight back.
Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that more than 500 civilians were trapped inside Soledar, including 15 children.
In a late-night video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the two units in Soledar, which, he said, “hold their positions and inflict significant losses on the enemy.” He did not provide more details.
Meat grinder
The front line in Ukraine has barely moved in the two months since Russia’s last major retreat in the south. Meanwhile, the battles at Bakhmut and Soledar turned into what both sides called the “meat grinder” – a brutal war of attrition that claimed the lives of thousands of soldiers needed for the upcoming decisive battles.
The new year has brought important promises of additional Western weapons for Ukraine, which is looking for armored vehicles to fight mechanized battles against Russian tanks. Last week, France, Germany and the US pledged to send armored fighting vehicles.
In recent days, the focus has been on main battle tanks, which Western countries have yet to provide. On Friday, Finland joined Poland in pledging to send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of the Western coalition. This requires the permission of Berlin, which has hesitated until now, but has recently signaled that it is ready to allow it.
Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24, saying Kyiv’s ties to the West threatened Russian security, and Russia has since said it has annexed four Ukrainian regions. Ukraine and its allies are calling it an unprovoked war to seize territory, while Kyiv says it will fight until it regains all of its land.
