Bitter fighting as Russia presses assault on Ukraine's Soledar
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[January 10, 2023]
By Dan Peleschuk and Tom Balmforth
KYIV (Reuters) - Russian troops have stepped up an assault on the small
salt mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, forcing Ukrainian troops
to repel waves of attacks led by mercenary forces, officials in Kyiv
said.
Britain said on Tuesday that Russian and forces of the Wagner contract
group were probably now in control of most of the town, in the
industrial Donbas region, after advances in the last four days.
Seizing Soledar would be advantageous to Russian forces as they fight
for control of the city of Bakhmut, a few kilometres (miles) to the
southwest, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in
some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine
nearly 11 months ago.
It would also give Russia a welcome battlefield victory after a series
of setbacks in recent months.
"Russia's Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut
from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication,"
Britain's Defence Ministry said in an intelligence briefly.
Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine's eastern forces, told Ukrainian
television Russian forces were deploying their best Wagner fighters at
Soledar, which had been struck 86 times by artillery over the past 24
hours.
He said Russia was using World War One-style tactics, throwing large
numbers of men into battle and absorbing heavy losses.
"This is basically not a 21st-century war," he said.
Prominent journalist Yuriy Butusov, who is embedded with Ukrainian
troops in Soledar, wrote for the online outlet New Voice that Russian
forces had established fire control over the main Ukrainian supply route
to the town.
"This is not a complete encirclement, but normal supply along the route
is impossible, (and) this is critical for defence," he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video
address on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite
widespread destruction.
He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have
been left standing and the land was covered with Russian corpses.
Bakhmut is located on a strategic supply line between the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions, which make up the Donbas. Gaining control of it could
give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities -
Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Russia's defence ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a
media briefing on Monday.
WAVES OF ATTACKS
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russia's prisons and known
for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has
taken a prominent role in Russia's war effort in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at
the cost of many lives on both sides.
He said on Saturday its significance lay in a network of cavernous
mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold troops or tanks.
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A firefighter works at a site of a
market hit by Russian missiles, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in
the town of Shevchenkove, Kharkiv region, Ukraine January 9, 2023.
Governor of Kharkiv region Oleh Sunehubov via Telegram/Handout via
REUTERS
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and
Soledar was "the most intense on the entire frontline".
"So many remain on the battlefield ... either dead or wounded," he
said on YouTube. "They attack our positions in waves, but the
wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is
very cold or from blood loss."
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
In an evacuee centre in Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled
Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was
destroyed in tank battles.
"There isn't one house left intact. Apartments were burning,
breaking in half," said Olha, who gave only her first name.
APPEAL FOR WEAPONS
Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery
Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a
new offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly urged Ukraine's Western supporters to
supply more sophisticated weapons to help it repel attacks and
eventually expel Russian troops.
"The world knows that every day of Russian presence on Ukrainian
soil means deaths, injuries, pain and suffering of people," he wrote
in a message on Telegram on Tuesday morning, under pictures of
Ukrainian soldiers.
"Ukraine must get everything it needs to expel terrorists from our
land and to reliably protect our people from any Russian escalation
plans."
France, Germany and the United States all pledged last week to send
armoured fighting vehicles. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine
with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western
source. Britain's Defence Ministry did not comment.
Russia launched what it calls a "special military operation" in
Ukraine on Feb. 24, citing threats to its own security and a need to
protect Russian speakers. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an
unprovoked war to seize territory.
Moscow has also cast the conflict as a fight between Russia and
hostile Western nations.
"The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv -
this is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above
all the United States and Britain," Russian Security Council
Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Tuesday.
"The Westerners' plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and
eventually just erase it from the political map of the world,"
Patrushev, one of Putin's closest allies, told the Argumenti i Fakti
newspaper in an interview.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Michael Perry and Alex
Richardson; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Angus MacSwan)
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