Russia claimed to have seized the small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine and to be poised to besiege the nearby city of Bakhmut, as Moscow’s forces appeared to squabble over who should take credit for what would be their first battlefield success in several months.
Ukraine denied that its troops had abandoned the ruins of Soledar and insisted Bakhmut was still defensible, and the United States said that the loss of either location is “not going to have a strategic impact on the war”.
“On the evening of January 12th, the liberation of the town of Soledar was completed, which is important for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk direction,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday.
“Establishing full control over Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes of Ukrainian troops in the city [of Bakhmut], located to the southwest, and then block and surround units of the armed forces of Ukraine that remain there.”
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The defence ministry statement praised a range of Russian military units for the supposed capture of Soledar, but did not mention the Wagner mercenary group that claimed to have seized the town singlehanded earlier this week.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian ultra-nationalist founder of Wagner, complained on social media that “they constantly try to steal victory from the Wagner [group] and talk about the presence of other unknown people just to belittle Wagner’s merits”.
Hours later, the defence ministry in Moscow issued another comment to “clarify” the situation, in which it said Soledar had been taken by a “diverse grouping of Russian forces working to a single plan”, including regular troops, artillery and the air force.
“As for the direct assault on districts of Soledar that were occupied by the armed forces of Ukraine, this combat mission was successfully undertaken by the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner assault squads,” the ministry added.
Mr Prigozhin has personally helped recruit prisoners to fight for Wagner on the promise of a pardon if they survive, and his perceived ruthlessness and effectiveness drew praise from Russian hardliners during months of setbacks for the regular military in Ukraine.
In its evening report on Friday, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said that “battles for Soledar are continuing”.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, compared fighting for Soledar and Bakhmut – ruined towns set amid fields riddled with trenches and littered with corpses and destroyed vehicles – to the first World War’s Battle of Verdun.
“The fighting has been fierce for months but our soldiers manage to maintain their positions,” he told France’s Le Monde newspaper on Thursday.
“The Russians release criminals from prison who die as soon as they reach the front line. Their bodies are left on the spot, they are not even recovered… We face a human mass which attacks, attacks, attacks unceasingly,” he added.
“Soledar is the scene of street battles, with no side really controlling the town. The Russians are present there but they do not control it. The situation is difficult but we keep the same objective in this war, which is … to fully restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Ukraine hopes its allies will finally commit to providing modern, western-made heavy battle tanks when they meet under the auspices of the so-called Ramstein group next week.
“Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself. And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down in terms of their efforts to regain their territory,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
