KIEV, UKRAINE (AP) – The fate of a run-down salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine was at stake in one of the bloodiest battles of Wednesday’s Russian invasion, but Ukraine’s relentless resistance and other challenges This has shaken Moscow’s military leadership. Also.
Russian forces bombarded Soledar in relentless attacks using jets, mortars, and rockets.
Soledar’s downfall, though unlikely to be the turning point in his nearly 11-month war, will come at a cost for the Kremlin, which has been hungry for good news from the battlefield over the past few months. It also provides a springboard for Russian forces to occupy other areas of Donetsk province still under Ukrainian control, such as the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut.
Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province, which make up the Donbass region bordering Russia, were Russia’s biggest territorial targets for an invasion of Ukraine, but the fighting has largely stalled. In apparent acknowledgment of a setback on the battlefield, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced the demotion of the Russian military commander in Ukraine after just three months in office. Russia’s top military officer – General Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the army – has been named to replace General Sergei Slovikin, who was demoted to his lieutenant.
Ukrainian officials have denied Russian claims that the Soledar crashed, but the owner of the Wagner Group reiterated claims of a breakthrough late Wednesday. Evgeny Prigozhin wrote on Russian social media platforms that he “wanted to once again confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of Soledar’s territory from units of the Ukrainian army.” “Civilians have withdrawn. Ukrainian units that refused to surrender have been destroyed,” he said, claiming that about 500 people were killed and “the whole city is littered with the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.”
The Ukrainian military said late Wednesday that Russian forces had suffered “huge casualties” in the Battle of Soleda.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov paused to explain the capture of the community, telling reporters that the Russian army had achieved “advance and positive momentum” at Soledar. “Let’s wait for an official statement instead of rushing,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address Wednesday:
“Now the terrorist state and its propaganda are trying to pretend that part of our city, Soledal, almost completely destroyed by the occupying forces, is probably a Russian achievement.
Soledar, known for its salt mining and processing, is of little intrinsic value, but is strategically located 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the town of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are about to besiege.
Taking Bakhmut cuts Ukrainian supply lines and opens the way for the Russians to advance towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region.
Putin has identified the Donbass region as a flashpoint for the civil war, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014. Russia conquered almost all of Luhansk in the summer. Donetsk escaped the same fate, after which the Russian army poured manpower and resources into Bakhmut.
The War Institute said Russian forces faced “coordinated Ukrainian military resistance” around Bakhmut.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was ready to send German-made Leopard tanks to help Ukraine as part of the larger United Nations. After the meeting in Lviv, Duda spoke with Zelensky, who said Ukraine needed tanks to win the war. In Britain, another staunch ally of Ukraine, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said no final decision had yet been made on whether to send tanks.
