Russian army reports capture of Soledar: Ukraine denies

ZTwo days after the mercenary group “Wagner” the Russian military has now also claimed the largely destroyed east ukrainian Taking the town of Soledar. The “liberation” of Soledar was “completed” on Thursday evening, the Ministry of Defense reported on Friday afternoon. The small town is in the Donetsk region, which Russia illegally annexed last fall.

The ministry left open who took Soledar, but emphasized that the conquest was only “possible” thanks to “constant” and “non-stop” attacks by the regular armed forces, including the air force. Soledar is of great importance for further successful attacks, it said. In this way, supply routes could be cut off for the Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, southwest of Soledar (which the occupiers refer to with the old Soviet name “Artemowsk”), which could be encircled there.

The Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin had already claimed on Wednesday night that his mercenaries completely controlled Soledar and emphasized that only “Wagner” was in the small town. For months, the military and Prigozhin have been engaged in an obscure, obscure struggle over their role in the war. “Constant attempts are being made to steal victory from the private military company ‘Wagner’,” Prigozhin complained on Telegram on Friday.

of Russia War-loving bloggers sought to smooth over the waters and resolve contradictions between Prigozhin’s and the Defense Ministry’s accounts. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military emphasized that the fighting for Soledar continued. The statement by the Russian military does not correspond to reality and is due to the need to report “victories at the front”.