Russia has launched a powerful attack on the city of Soledar in the eastern part of Ukraine, and the Ukrainians have repelled the efforts of Wagner’s group to occupy the city, writes Reuters.
Soledar is located near Bakhmut, where Ukrainians have been fighting the occupiers in trench warfare for several months. Both sides suffered significant losses. The Ukrainians have repulsed previous Russian attempts to capture the city, but the mercenaries of Wagner’s group are quickly returning with new forces, using new tactics and sending more and more soldiers into the line of fire. Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar reported in Telegram that the enemy is using heavy artillery and leaving behind the corpses of fallen comrades.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not mention the battles in Soledar or Bakhmut at a press conference on Monday, the 9th of January.
Wagner’s group is a mercenary army owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is characterized by gratuitous violence and extreme cruelty, and in October the group was recruiting fighters in Russian prisons. It is known that Prigozhin’s mercenaries are active not only in Ukraine but also in African countries and Serbia.
Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military expert and reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated that the battles in Bakhmut and Soledar are currently the heaviest along the entire front line. «So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield … either dead or wounded.
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. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield,»
Zhdanov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his address on Monday, the 9th of January, that Bakhmut and Soledar are holding, despite the extensive damage. The president added that the endurance and perseverance of the Ukrainian soldiers had given Ukraine time and the opportunity to replenish its forces, but did not explain what he meant by that.
Meanwhile, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army Valery Zaluzhny has warned that Russia is preparing soldiers for a new attack in Ukraine and may try to reach Kyiv. Zelensky continues negotiations with Western partners and calls for additional armaments to be provided to Ukraine.
The US, Germany, and France pledged to send armored vehicles to Ukraine in early January, and Britain is considering sending tanks to Ukraine, but the British Ministry of Defense has not commented on the issue.
The US President’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan has indicated that Iran may be participating in war crimes in Ukraine by supplying Russia with drones.
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