This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Stefan Wolff receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK He is also a past recipient of grants from the United States Institute of Peace the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020 as well as the EU's Jean Monnet Programme He is a Senior Research Fellow of the Foreign Policy Centre in London and Co-Coordinator of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions University of Birmingham provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK View all partners The battle over the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar has been raging for several days now, with claims and counter-claims about whether Russia now has full control there But heavy Russian bombardment into January 12 confirmed Ukrainian assessments that fighting over the town remained intense this particular battle – and several other developments around it – is instructive for a broader understanding of where the war in Ukraine is and where it might be headed Three particular lessons stand out. First, even small territorial gains are enormously costly in personnel and materiel, and they are only achievable after protracted fighting that inflicts significant losses on both sides and ties up substantial resources. If Russia is eventually able to capture Soledar, it will do so only after razing the town to the ground The second insight that can be gleaned from the battle for Soledar and the broader context in which it takes place is that both sides maintain maximalist objectives and seem generally unwilling to engage in efforts towards a negotiated settlement. This is despite a recent meeting between the human rights commissioners of Russia and Ukraine in Ankara at which another prisoner exchange was agreed and in which both sides agreed to continue their humanitarian dialogue From the Russian perspective, the massive onslaught against Soledar – and the ongoing battles elsewhere along the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Donetsk oblast are extremely costly in terms of troops and munition They only make sense if the Kremlin’s aim remains the occupation of all of the four regions Russia annexed after sham referendums back in September As fighting has intensified on the ground, so it has between different Russian political factions the assault on Soledar was led by forces of the Wagner group a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin While Prigozhin may yet win the battle over Soledar, he lost the arguably more political battle when his close ally Sergei Surovikin – the main architect of the campaign to destroy critical Ukrainian infrastructure – was replaced on January 11 by the chief of the Russian general staff as overall commander for the war in Ukraine Gerasimov was the architect of the original Russian invasion back in February last year So his appointment is another signal that Putin has not given up on his maximalist war aims this remains a significant threat to Ukraine Surovikin’s replacement with Gerasimov also comes at a time when the relentless campaign of drone and missile attacks against Ukraine appears to have ended – without achieving its aim of breaking Ukrainians’ defensive spirit This may partly indicate depleted Russian stocks of weapons and ammunition But – together with the intensifying ground battles in Donbas – it also indicates a renewed Russian focus on the ground war and the expectation of future territorial gains This has given the Kremlin a significant pool of manpower and the time to regroup forces and train and integrate newly mobilised troops Together with the prevailing superiority of Russian artillery and air power this will afford Gerasimov a potential advantage in future offensives The third – and longer-term – lesson, therefore, is the need for more western support. Commitments to send more air defence systems and battlefield vehicles to Ukraine are an important step it also signals that the west remains firmly behind Ukraine’s defence efforts and is backing Kyiv in its aim of restoring full territorial integrity But, given how slow western deliveries have been at times, British, Polish, French and likely German military supplies are unlikely to influence the outcome of the current battle over Soledar. On balance, then, the events in and around Soledar over the past week illustrate that no matter the outcome of the current fighting, this is not a turning point. It’s another strong indication that the war is likely going to be long and costly. SupportEN Вікторія КоломієцьЖурналістка holds a special place in the heart of community activist Natalia Tyshchuk "Soledar is situated at a high altitude with strong steppe winds The air quality in Donetsk Oblast is unmatched and the wind blew so hard that it reminded me of those feelings It brought back memories of my beloved Soledar," Natalia shares where there were job openings for educators 'The city is beautiful; we have salt here and people are well-employed.' She told me the city had a future and would become even better with all the chances to be one of the most successful in Donbas Soledar got its name after the collapse of the Soviet Union named after one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany Salt mining in the area began in the 17th century with intensive construction of salt mines starting after 1878 all the mines were destroyed but later restored Soledar had a population of just over 13,000 people The city's salt deposits were considered almost inexhaustible first in a kindergarten and then as a Ukrainian language teacher at a local school One of Natalia's favorite places in Soledar was Yurchyna Hill May 2020provided to hromadskeSoledar residents call it a 'hill,' but it's more like a ravine We loved going there with our children and having family picnics It was a place of strength for many Soledar residents.Natalia Tyshchuk public activistNatalia also fondly remembers Karpinskoho Street The scent of their blossoms still lingers in her memories "There was also a pizzeria called Gusto We loved meeting there to chat and have coffee They made the best pizza—better than in Italy The main holiday in Soledar was not City Day 2021State Enterprise Artemsil / Facebook“Artemsil never spared expenses for the celebrations There were fantastic performances and dance shows and preparations were made with great enthusiasm.” Natalia remembers it as a bustling anthill or a busy beehive "Everyone knew each other.” You could predict where and when you would meet an acquaintance Soledar became a place where Natalia grew as a person and where her community activism began She wanted to make the city more attractive to tourists She joined the charitable foundation Izolyatsia which implemented cultural projects and aimed to partially reconstruct the House of Culture (community center) Her students inspired her to take on this role "Many graduates knew that their hometown was waiting for them and that they would find good jobs there They knew it was a reliable support system." The Izolyatsia foundation succeeded in raising the city's profile recognizing that it was more than just salt and mines It was also about the remnants of the Permian Sea Izolyatsia introduced Soledar residents to contemporary art Natalia remembers the significant impact of sculptures like "Shark People" and the yellow "Angel of Soledar." are these sculptures still there?'" the foundation planned a project to illuminate the mine headframes "We already had a preliminary budget calculation and found a contractor." her husband was already deeply involved in the war and couldn't be with her Natalia planned to celebrate with her children and parents at their favorite pizzeria and she was responsible for the lives of her loved ones but Ukraine regained control in July of the same year In 2023, despite heavy losses, the Wagner Group intensified their assaults. According to the deputy head of the Ukrainian mission to the OSCE, Nataliya Kostenko Russia suffered more losses in the battle for Soledar than in two Chechen wars combined The city fell under occupation on January 25 when Ukrainian forces retreated from Soledar A few days after the start of the full-scale invasion Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and later to Khmelnytskyi They left sentimental items in their apartment my husband visited the apartment and took the banner and our family photo album My mother also came and took our vyshyvanka embroideries and family photos from the wall." Natalia finds it hardest to lose the opportunity to return home She misses the family gatherings around the table in their cozy apartment Natalia Tyshchuk's Home Museumprovided to hromadske"My great-grandchildren will know about Soledar"The Tyshchuk family's apartment is gone Witnesses say no building in the city remains intact The salt mines and Artemsil buildings were also severely damaged She mourns the most the loss of her home library which she had carefully curated over the years It contained many books with the authors' autographs I was at a concert by Serhiy Zhadan and had his book but didn't approach him I just couldn't bring myself to do it." Natalia believes that Soledar will be rebuilt someday She envisions Ukrainian salt being mined there again and linden trees blooming on Karpinskoho Street Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times your new go-to podcast to spice up your weekday mornings with relevant news and behind-the-scenes from Brussels and beyond From the economy to the climate and the EU's role in world affairs this talk show sheds light on European affairs and the issues that impact on our daily lives as Europeans Tune in to understand the ins and outs of European politics Dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries Deep dive conversations with business leaders Euronews Tech Talks goes beyond discussions to explore the impact of new technologies on our lives the podcast provides valuable insights into the intersection of technology and society Europe's water is under increasing pressure floods are taking their toll on our drinking water Join us on a journey around Europe to see why protecting ecosystems matters and to discover some of the best water solutions an animated explainer series and live debate - find out why Water Matters We give you the latest climate facts from the world’s leading source analyse the trends and explain how our planet is changing We meet the experts on the front line of climate change who explore new strategies to mitigate and adapt Ukraine has officially admitted to withdrawing troops from the eastern town of Soledar on Wednesday But Ukrainian army spokesman Sergui Tcherevaty did not specify when it took place the Ukrainian armed forces left [Soledar]," he said Recent weeks have seen vicious fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the salt mining town which sits in the hotly-contested Donbas region Moscow has portrayed the fight as key to seizing the strategic town of Bakhmut and the prized Donbas region said it was "not an operationally significant development" A war of words has accompanied fighting on the ground Moscow claimed its forces had seized the besieged salt mining town the Russian private military group Wagner said it had taken Soledar This is the first time Ukraine has officially recognised the loss of the town which was once home to 11,000 people before the Russian invasion Tcherevaty said the retreat was "controlled" with "no encirclement or massive capture of our soldiers" and denied that soldiers had leaked information about its fate He claimed Ukrainian troops "inflicted incredible losses" on the Russians and emphasised that Kyiv's strategy was to "wear out the enemy" Casualty figures are highly-contested on both sides Russian officials said their soldiers had made advances towards Bakhmut on Wednesday citing the capture of Soledar as the reason why For more watch Euronews' report in the video above Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war Isabel joined Newsweek in 2021 and had previously worked with news outlets including the Daily Express You can get in touch with Isabel by emailing i.vanbrugen@newsweek.com or by following her on X @isabelvanbrugen either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Russian forces are advancing towards the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after capturing the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Russia on Friday claimed to have captured Soledar which is located nine miles north of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region Russian troops were led in that battle by members of the notorious paramilitary unit founded by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2014 Kremlin-installed authorities in the Donetsk region said in a statement on Telegram that Soledar was under Russian control "On the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic Russian troops liberated Soledar," the post said In its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine on Monday, the ISW, a U.S.-based think tank, said Russian forces may be intensifying attacks near Klishchiivka, located southwest of Bakhmut, after capturing Soledar It's part of a "new effort to encircle Bakhmut after months of ineffective frontal assaults," the ISW said a prominent Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces were attacking Klishchiivka and that Russian advances in southern Bakhmut will enable Russian forces to threaten Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) on the T0504 highway from Chasiv Yar to Bakhmut Russian sources also reported that heavy fighting continued in Klishchiivka on Monday noting that the Ukrainian General Staff reported that its forces had repelled Russian attacks against Bakhmut itself Klishchiivka and Mayorsk on Saturday and Sunday "Geolocated combat footage published on January 15 indicates that Russian forces have made marginal advances in southeastern Bakhmut near the Bakhmut garbage dump," the think tank said "A Russian source claimed that Russian forces made additional territorial gains in southern Bakhmut on Maly Troitsky Lane Russia's defense ministry on Friday credited its artillery aviation and missile forces in the capture of Soledar Ukraine has continued to deny that Soledar has been seized completely by Russian forces a spokesman for Ukraine's eastern military command reiterated that Ukraine's forces were holding out "Eastern Ukraine is remaining the main target of the aggressor's attack The enemy focused the main efforts on the Bakhmut direction Ukrainian units continue holding the defense in the city itself and its outskirts," he said during a television broadcast Bakhmut has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war in Ukraine 90 percent of Bakhmut's residents have fled with the 8,000 residents who remain subject to daily fire Newsweek has reached out to the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia for comment Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Yevgeny Prigozhin poses with some of his mercenaries in Ukrainian town renowned for its salt mines The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar which if confirmed would mark Moscow’s first major battlefield success since last summer “Wagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,” said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his Telegram channel late on Tuesday. Prigozhin said on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops were surrounded in the centre of the town. “There are street battles ongoing. The number of prisoners taken will be announced tomorrow,” he said. Read moreDenis Pushilin, a Russian proxy official in eastern Ukraine told Russia’s Channel One that Soledar had been taken the centre of Soledar is already under the control of Wagner units,” he said Prigozhin released a photograph of himself, surrounded by Wagner fighters, in what appeared to be one of Soledar’s salt mines, possibly a deliberate riposte to US officials who have in recent days publicly claimed the controversial businessman is interested in taking over salt and gypsum mines in the area It was not immediately possible to verify the location of the photograph and there was no confirmation forthcoming from Ukrainian officials of Prigozhin’s claims but there had been suggestions in Kyiv and western capitals over recent days that the fall of Soledar was imminent The Ukrainian military’s Wednesday morning summary made one mention of Soledar listing the town as one of several being shelled in the Donetsk region Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its daily briefing earlier on Tuesday that much of Soledar was likely to already be under Russian control. “Part of the fighting has focused on entrances to the 200km-long disused salt mine tunnels which run underneath the district. Both sides are likely concerned that they could be used for infiltration behind their lines,” said the briefing. In his nightly address on Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the “heroic” defenders of Soledar but gave no update on the military situation. In his address the previous night, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were withstanding “new and even tougher assaults” on the city, amid speculation he was preparing public opinion for the loss of the town. He said Russian forces had taken huge losses in the battle. “The area near Soledar is covered with corpses of the invaders … this is what madness looks like,” said Zelenskiy. He said the town was completely destroyed and that the Ukrainian resilience had won “additional time and strength” for Ukrainian forces. Beyond Soledar, Russia’s next target is Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to take since the summer. The capture of the city, which had a prewar population of 70,000 but has been reduced to ruins after months of intense fighting, has become one of Moscow’s main objectives. Ukraine’s robust defence of Bakhmut has also given the city symbolic importance to Kyiv. Read more“Despite the increased pressure on Bakhmut Russia is unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes,” said the MoD briefing Wagner’s role in the Soledar offensive is likely to deepen a battle for power and influence in the planning of Russia’s invasion a St Petersburg restaurant owner who rose to fame as “Putin’s chef” – and until earlier this year denied being behind Wagner – has taken on a much more public role since the invasion He has recruited directly from prisons and aimed frequent public criticism at top generals insisting that his troops are more effective than the regular Russian army “I want to underline once more that no one except for Wagner took part in the storm of Soledar,” said Prigozhin on Tuesday evening Western intelligence officers believe the Wagner group is playing an increasingly significant role in Russia’s campaign and that according to one official speaking on condition of anonymity “there’s a realistic possibility that Wagner personnel now make up a quarter or more of Russian combatants” their military effectiveness in the Bakhmut sector – where their forces are concentrated – is still considered to be limited with the same official describing the pace of advance as so slow that “sometimes it takes two weeks to take a single house” UK says most of Ukrainian saltmine town near Bakhmut is in Russian hands after intensive fighting The Russian mercenary group Wagner has said it is fighting “heavy bloody battles” for control of the town of Soledar as part of Moscow’s months-long offensive to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region Wagner’s claims appeared to be confirmed by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) a small town about six miles (10km) north of the key city of Bakhmut was in Russian hands after Moscow continued to make “tactical advances” The MoD said the efforts in Soledar over the past four days appeared to be aimed at encircling Bakhmut although it added it believed that scenario was unlikely at present Fighting in Soledar has reached its western outskirts as Ukrainian and Russian forces fight for control of the town’s salt mine, the tunnels of which have been eyed by Wagner as they can accommodate troops and armoured vehicles A feature of the battle near Bakhmut is that some of the fighting has been around entrances to disused salt mine tunnels that honeycomb the area with the MoD update adding: “Both sides are likely concerned that [the tunnels] could be used for infiltration behind their lines.” the Russian offensive appeared aimed at gaining control of the road beyond and the settlements of Blahodatne and Krasna Hora to the immediate north of Bakhmut Ukraine’s general staff said on Tuesday that Russian forces were trying to advance in three areas on the Donbas front: around Bakhmut further south around Avdiivka and north around Lyman in an attempt to secure the administrative border of Donetsk oblast in that area Highlighting the intensity of the Russian assault said that in the past 24 hours Russian forces had made 281 attacks along the Bakhmut axis Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar added that Russia had thrown “a large number of storm groups” into the battle “The enemy is advancing literally on the bodies of their own soldiers and is massively using artillery Ukrainian soldiers on patrol in Bakhmut Photograph: Mykola Tymchenko/EPARussian forces have taken heavy losses in the fighting around Bakhmut said earlier this week that Soledar was being stormed “exclusively” by Wagner units saying they were fighting fiercely for the city’s administration building Prigozhin said on social media on Tuesday: “On the western outskirts of Soledar there are heavy bloody battles The armed forces of Ukraine are honourably defending the territory of Soledar.” dismissed claims that Ukrainian forces were deserting frontlines en masse in Soledar The Ukrainian army is bravely fighting for Bakhmut and Soledar Reports of their mass desertion are not true,” Prigozhin said The capture of Bakhmut – a now devastated city that had a prewar population of 70,000 – has become one of Moscow’s main military objectives almost a year into its Ukraine mission The intense focus on it has baffled many observers With the low ridges to the west dominated by Ukraine’s artillery secondary lines of defences already in place should Bakhmut fall and substantial Ukrainian reinforcements already deployed in depth most analysts believe Moscow will continue to struggle with its offensive again underlined the difficulty of his forces’ position in Soledar saying troops were withstanding “new and even tougher assaults” with some speculating he may be preparing public opinion for the loss of the town He said the town had been flattened by the fighting Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength.” He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength Zelenskiy said Russia had gained little in its assault on Soledar at the cost of “thousands” of its troops adding: “The area near Soledar is covered with corpses of the invaders … This is what madness looks like.” The Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar was “the most intense on the entire frontline” “So many remain on the battlefield … either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube 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.” Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this article FILE - Ukrainian army Grad multiple rocket launcher fires rockets at Russian positions in the frontline near Soledar 2023 that its forces have captured the salt-mining town of Soledar the focus of a bloody battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces for months FILE - Ukrainian soldiers on their positions in the frontline near Soledar FILE - Smoke billows during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Soledar gives instructions in a shelter in Soledar the site of heavy battles with the Russian forces Western officials and analysts say the two towns’ importance after months of bloody fighting is more symbolic than strategic Moscow has prioritized taking full control of the Donbas — a region made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces where it has backed a separatist insurgency since 2014 but about half of Donetsk remains under Ukraine’s control There have repeatedly been conflicting reports over who controls Soledar The Associated Press could not independently confirm either side’s claim “The liberation of the town of Soledar was completed in the evening of Jan calling the development “important for the continuation of offensive operations in the Donetsk region.” Taking control of the town would allow Russian forces to cut supply lines to Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut and then “block and encircle the Ukrainian units there,” Konashenkov said a spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the east telling the AP “there are still Ukrainian units in Soledar.” And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Friday for other towns and villages in the east of our state continues.” Zelenskyy told the Lithuanian parliament earlier in the day that Kyiv did not intend to give any “breathing space” to Russian forces and that the coming months will be “decisive” for Ukraine’s fight to defend itself said the fall of Soledar wouldn’t mark “an operationally significant development and is unlikely to presage an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.” The institute said Russian information operations have “overexaggerated the importance of Soledar,” a small settlement And it argued that the long and difficult battle has contributed to the exhaustion of Russian forces White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Thursday also downplayed the significance of potential Russian gains in the area “Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians .. it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself,” Kirby said “And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down in terms of their efforts to regain their territory.” Ukraine reported there had been a heavy night of fighting said Moscow “had sent almost all (its) main forces” to secure a victory in the east who asked for anonymity for security reasons previously told the AP that in the battle for Soledar the Russians have sent a first wave of soldiers including many from the private Russian military contractor Wagner Group who take heavy casualties but exhaust the Ukrainian defenders Then the Russians have sent in another wave of highly trained soldiers After Prigozhin angrily accused the Defense Ministry of “constantly trying to steal Wagner’s victory,” the Defense Ministry changed course and acknowledged the group’s ”courageous and selfless action” to capture Soledar the Ukrainian central security agency announced Friday that it is holding counter-sabotage exercises along a section of the border with Belarus The move comes amidst heightened concern about Belarus’ possible involvement in the war The country has provided a base for about 10,000 Russian soldiers and the two countries are to conduct joint military air exercises next week ShareSaveCommentBusinessAerospace & DefenseRussian Mercenaries’ Human Wave Tactics Push Back Ukrainian Troops In SoledarByDavid Axe ShareSaveComment@font-face{font-family: "Schnyder"; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/schnyders/schnyders-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2") url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/schnyders/schnyders/schnyders-bold-webfont.woff") format("woff"); font-weight: 700; font-style: normal;} @font-face{font-family: "Merriweather"; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2") 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.color-accent{color: #000000;} #article-stream-0 .headline-embed.bg-accent #article-stream-0 .headline-embed .bg-accent{background-color: #000000;} #article-stream-0 .headline-embed.color-base #article-stream-0 .headline-embed .color-base{color: #FFFFFF;} #article-stream-0 .headline-embed.bg-base #article-stream-0 .headline-embed .bg-base{background-color: #FFFFFF;} #article-stream-0 .headline-embed.font-base #article-stream-0 .headline-embed .font-base{font-family: Schnyder,"Noto Sans","Droid Sans","Helvetica Neue",Corbel,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;} #article-stream-0 .headline-embed.font-size #article-stream-0 .headline-embed .font-size{font-size: 54px;}Wagner fighters When the Ukrainian army began rotating fresh units into eastern Ukraine in mid-December the 46th Air Mobile Brigade drew the short straw the seat of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic the shadowy mercenary company financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin—who earlier in life was Russian president Vladimir Putin’s favorite sausage vendor—last spring chose Bakhmut as its main target The Ukrainians have killed thousands of Wagner fighters and stubbornly held on in Bakhmut Wagner’s human-wave tactics apparently worked It’s always possible Ukrainian forces could counterattack and liberate Soledar “The situation can change in half a day,” Pohrebyskyy stressed the fall of Soledar doesn’t necessarily mean Bakhmut is in imminent danger of falling “The capture of the center and most of Soledar by Wagner units is an undoubted tactical success,” wrote Igor Girkin a former Russian army officer who played a key role in Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula the enemy's front was not broken through.” “The enemy is creating a new line of defense on the western outskirts “The battles for the city are not over yet—the western outskirts and suburbs will have to be stormed The enemy command definitely controls the situation.” No ground-combat force can sustain offensive operations after losing a third of its strength Whether and how quickly Wagner can recruit new fighters—likely from Russia’s prison population—could shape what happens next No one expects Wagner to give up on Bakhmut the mercenary firm might read its capture of Soledar as evidence its human-wave tactics work and are worth the cost in blood—and it should push even harder “It still needs to be reached,” Girkin wrote of Bakhmut The 46th Air Mobile Brigade surely is planning accordingly Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Thursday there was fierce fighting in Soledar Maliar spoke a day after conflicting claims about who controlled the town in eastern Ukraine Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday called the battle for Soledar “a very fluid dynamic fight” amid reports that it had fallen to the Russians we can’t corroborate that reporting,” Austin said in joint press briefing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Japanese counterparts at the State Department the head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group said Wednesday his forces had captured all of the mining town and killed 500 Ukrainian troops in heavy fighting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the fighting continued The Russians "are trying to pretend that part of our town of Soledar .. is some sort of a Russian possession," he said in a video address The Donetsk theater of operations is holding." the Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were suffering heavy losses Russia has been trying to capture the salt-mining town since August because of its salt caverns and proximity to Bakhmut The area is one of the most active in the conflict making it difficult for an independent assessment of the situation A Reuters photographer who recently reached the edge of Soledar said she could see smoke rising over the town and the incoming artillery fire was relentless Ambulances were waiting to receive the wounded on the road from Soledar to Bakhmut Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that General Valery Gerasimov was taking over command of the forces in Ukraine Britain's Defense Ministry said the move is “an indicator of the increasing seriousness of the situation Russia is facing and a clear acknowledgement that the campaign is falling short of Russia’s strategic goals.” It added in a tweet that Russian ultranationalists and military bloggers critical of Gerasimov are likely to greet the news with “extreme displeasure.” Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London He also covers other areas of geopolitics including China Brendan joined Newsweek in 2018 from the International Business Times and well as English You can get in touch with Brendan by emailing b.cole@newsweek.com or follow on him on his X account @brendanmarkcole The bloody fight for the Donetsk town of Soledar has taken a heavy toll on Russian and Ukrainian forces amid speculation over what it might signify for the next stage of the war British defense officials said that as of Sunday Ukrainian forces have "almost certainly maintained positions" in the town Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram told Newsweek that reported Russian gains in Soledar were "tactically important" as Wagner continued to try to surround and capture Bakhmut "But the battle for Bakhmut has been going on for six months and progress for the Russians has been painfully slow and at huge cost," he said the longer they can keep the Russians tied up focusing more and more resources on Bakhmut the more it gives Ukrainian formations time to prepare get additional equipment and plan for their next counteroffensive "The Ukrainians have fixed Russian attention onto Bakhmut and fixing a formation is a military operation," he added comprise of a single segment of the frontline and are treated as a unit by both Kyiv and Moscow The independent Russian language news outlet said that the loss of Soledar would threaten Ukrainian positions around Bakhmut as well as the supply lines west of the urban area it said a Ukrainian breakthrough by Kreminna on the northern flank of the Russian grouping would endanger the Russian offensive on Bakhmut Ministry of Defense said that intense fighting continued in both the Kreminna and Bakhmut sectors of the Donbas front There have been attacks and counterattacks in wooded country around Kreminna but Ukrainian armed forces "continue to gradually advance their front line east on the edge of Kremina town," the update added the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) outlined on Sunday its long-term predictions for the next steps in the war in the coming months The first is for Moscow to seek to conduct a major offensive in the Luhansk oblast The second would be a Russian defensive operation to defeat and exploit a Ukrainian counteroffensive This follows the Kremlin's redeployment of units from Kherson to Luhansk and the Russian oblasts of Belgorod and Kursk after its withdrawal from Kherson Moscow's intentions for a counteroffensive have been predicted by Kyiv and Russian military bloggers because "the full capture" of that and the Donetsk region "remain the Kremlin's official war goals and are among Russia's most achievable," the ISW said What Moscow does next will depend on what President Vladimir Putin does with the troops called up during a partial mobilization drive Amid accusations that the new reservists are ill equipped and ill trained analysts have cast doubt on whether such troops would be used for offensive operations or whether they are more likely to hold the line and only push forward incrementally "I think even if you could mobilize 300,000 plus people you're going to utilize them to maintain the terrain that you have out of Crimea and the Donbas and not have them go down the offensive plan again to retake ground you already lost," Dale Buckner CEO of international security firm Global Guardian Ukraine reported a fresh wave of attacks on key infrastructure facilities on Saturday a day after Russia claimed to have captured the ravaged eastern town of Soledar following a long battle Victory in Soledar would be a rare achievement for Moscow after an embarrassing series of military setbacks — although Kyiv insisted fighting was still ongoing in the city on Saturday Ukrainian infrastructure once again came under fire on Saturday as winter deepened the enemy fired at energy facilities again," energy company Ukrenergo said adding that it was working on "eliminating the consequences" of the strikes Ukrainian officials reported strikes on a power facility and a fire broke out in a warehouse after fragments of a rocket fell "the enemy launched another missile attack on critical infrastructure and industrial facilities," governor Oleg Synegubov said.  There could be emergency power cuts in the city of Kharkiv Russian attacks killed three people on Friday, the deputy head of the presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko said a salt mining town in the Donetsk region that Russia finally claimed to have captured on Friday after regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television that Ukrainian forces still "controlled" the town on Saturday Kyrylenko conceded that the "battles continue in and outside of the town" and described the months-long fight for control of Soledar and nearby Bakhmut as the "hottest" spots on the frontline.  Both sides have conceded heavy losses in the battle for the town with Moscow desperate to sell any win back home after repeated humiliations and Ukraine determined to hold — and win back — ground AFP journalists saw Ukrainian medics tending to the wounded brought from the nearby frontline bullet-proof vests and pieces of uniform were discarded on the side of the road after being cut from corpses.  The health workers were "here to help the living" said a 31-year-old medic who identified himself as Vadim and another with an injured leg and carried on a stretcher were quickly helped into a waiting ambulance.  The wounded were usually taken to stabilization points before being transferred to hospital Another medic bent over one of the wounded men's vest "Things are consistently difficult," said Vadim but "the Ukrainians are keeping their positions." Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help. Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact. By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us. 2023 3:59 PM ESTRussia claimed Friday to have completed its capture of the town Soledar in eastern Ukraine Friday after months of fighting in a brutal offensive that would hand the Kremlin its first significant battlefield gain since July after a wave of military setbacks Ukraine insists that the fighting was far from over. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described the phase of the war as being “difficult,” but the conflict in Soledar is “hot,” she wrote Friday on Telegram “The enemy threw almost all the main forces in the direction of Donetsk and has maintained a high intensity of the offensive,” she said “Our fighters are bravely trying to hold the defense.” has emerged as a critical step in Moscow’s goal of encircling the key city of Bakhmut a transportation hub under assault since August and ultimately capturing the entire Donbas region The fighting has intensified in recent weeks as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked Feb with Russia pummeling Soledad at the expense of steep losses to its own forces Amid competing claims over control of the city, images geolocated by the Institute for the Study of War a Washington-based military research group while pushing Ukrainian forces to the west Read More: Ukraine Dismisses Russia’s Declaration of a Holiday Ceasefire Officials from both sides have referred to the battle as a “meat grinder,” with streets strewn with corpses of soldiers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week there was “almost no life” in Soledar and “no whole walls left” on any building in the mining town “This is what madness looks like,” he said in a nightly video address on Monday The Wagner Group first appeared in 2014 during Russia’s annexation of Crimea Read More: Biden Deepens Involvement in War by Inviting Ukrainian Troops to U.S. for Weapons Training “And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.” Kirby described the greater Donbas region as an open region of farmland akin to Kansas. It’s crucial, he said, that the U.S. continues to provide “the kinds of capabilities to Ukraine to be able to succeed in that environment.” The Bradley Fighting Vehicles which were part of the $2.85 billion military aid package announced last week will be vital to safely transport troops around the battlefield during this grinding phase assistance would continue to flow “in the run-up to and beyond” the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion the end of the war remains nowhere in sight Write to W.J. Hennigan at william.hennigan@time.com Russian mercenary group Wagner said on Tuesday it was fighting "heavy bloody battles" for control of the town of Soledar as part of Russia's months-long offensive to capture Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region "On the western outskirts of Soledar there are heavy bloody battles The Armed Forces of Ukraine are honorably defending the territory of Soledar," Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media also dismissed allegations that Ukrainian forces were deserting the front lines en masse in Soledar "Let's be honest with ourselves. The Ukrainian army is bravely fighting for Bakhmut and Soledar. Reports of their mass desertion are not true," Prigozhin said Soledar is around 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the war-battered city of Bakhmut which has become the focus of fighting in recent months The capture of Bakhmut — a city with a pre-war population of 70,000 — is now one of Moscow's main military objectives almost a year into its Ukraine mission said on Tuesday on Russian state television that Soledar was "very close to liberation" by Moscow's forces He admitted that this came "at a very high price" and said Ukrainian forces were "still resisting." Prigozhin said earlier this week that Soledar was being stormed "exclusively" by Wagner units saying they were fighting fiercely for the city's administration building Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late-night address on Monday that his troops were withstanding "new and even tougher assaults" on Soledar.  He said the town had been flattened by the fighting. "Everything is completely destroyed." The U.K.'s defense ministry said on Monday that Moscow's forces were "likely in control of most" of Soledar Prigozhin and Wagner's public persona has vastly grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.  The businessman has recruited prisoners to fight in Ukraine promising amnesty upon their return if they survive We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression A Russian proxy official in east Ukraine has claimed to have visited Soledar the flattened town in the Donetsk region of Ukraine that Moscow said it captured this month Moscow's top official responsible for Donetsk said late Sunday he had visited the destroyed salt mining town with Zurab Makiev Pushilin posted video on social media showing the men armed and wearing military attire arriving by car to Soledar AFP could not independently verify the images They were the first Moscow-linked officials to claim to visit the town whose capture Russia has portrayed as a major victory Pushilin told Russian state television Monday after the visit that Soledar had been "destroyed" and that there were "almost no whole buildings left." The Defense Ministry has said that the town's capture is an important step to pushing out Ukrainian troops from Bakhmut Pushilin said that fighting in Bakhmut was "intensifying" and claimed Russian troops were advancing and that mercenaries were controlling strategic heights near Bakhmut but our units are advancing almost everywhere," he said video showed Pushilin was accompanied by fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner Wagner said it played the lead in the offensive for Soledar Pushilin's footage showed burnt-out apartment blocks and ruined industrial buildings and the sound of artillery fire could be heard in the background Pushilin said there were some civilians left in Soledar and claimed they were receiving aid from Wagner fighters.  They are supported with everything necessary by Wagner fighters," Pushilin said.  "There are still civilians who do not want to leave," he said The Moscow-backed separatist leader said Wagner fighters told the officials "how bloody the battles were." "We fought for every house," one fighter in the video said which Moscow's forces have been trying to capture for months Ukraine has not formally announced the withdrawal of its forces from Soledar.  Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that its forces had won a significant victory on Friday with the capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar despite military analysts cautioning that the salt-mining town held greater symbolic than strategic value.  The situation on the ground in what remains of Soledar remained unclear late Friday, with Ukrainian officials stressing that fighting was still ongoing.  A camera crew with U.S. network CNN reported seeing Ukrainian troops retreating in good order on the outskirts of the town late Friday.  If the Russian seizure of Soledar is confirmed it will likely be hailed in Moscow as a significant victory after months of reversals on the battlefield.  It is also expected to boost the political profile of the founder of mercenary company Wagner whose fighters were heavily involved in the operation.   which had a pre-war population of about 10,000 will give Russia little advantage in the ongoing fighting — apart from improving its position in the battle for nearby Bakhmut.  “Soledar itself has no major strategic significance,” said Israel-based military expert David Sharp.  “Its capture should be viewed as part of the battle for Bakhmut — of course it will improve Russia’s position in Bakhmut from the north but the Russian military would need further progress in the area,” he told The Moscow Times Russia’s Defense Ministry attempted to portray the seizure of Soledar as a milestone in the months-long battle for Bakhmut, saying in a statement on Friday that the town's fall was “important” and would allow Russian forces to cut Ukrainian supply lines in the area.  Russian state media war correspondent Alexander Sladkov posted a video of what appeared to be the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers in Soledar with the caption “Another Ukrainian failure.” the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said the fall of Soledar was unlikely to lead to Bakhmut’s imminent encirclement “The capture of Soledar — a settlement smaller than 5.5 square miles — will not enable Russian forces to exert control over critical Ukrainian ground lines of communication into Bakhmut nor better position Russian forces to encircle the city,” the think tank said in its daily briefing released on Thursday There are no official casualty figures for the battle for Soledar but more than eight months of fighting for control of Bakhmut is believed to have left a death and injury toll in the thousands on both sides.  Some observers believe the intensity of the fighting in Soledar and Bakhmut is due to the ambitions of Prigozhin who has apparently pushed Wagner recruits into the thick of the fighting in his attempt to secure a battlefield victory.  On Tuesday Prigozhin posted a photo of himself with a group of soldiers in what he claimed was a salt mine in Soledar adding that Wagner alone has been responsible for the Russian victory.   “I want to emphasize once again that no units took part in the assault on Soledar except Wagner fighters,” Prigozhin said in a statement issued the same day Wagner has deployed former inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons — with a promise of securing an early release — to the frontlines around Bakhmut.  Sharp said that Russia’s readiness to use former inmates to fight in Ukraine represented a unique resource that improved its chances of winning even if the ex-cons had been “ruthlessly spent at the front.” Prigozhin has for months been locked in a dispute with Russia’s military commanders whom he has repeatedly criticized for what he describes as their incompetence and timidity who is believed to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his anger about the Defense Ministry’s claim of victory in Soledar.  “They are constantly trying to steal victory from Wagner,” Prigozhin said in a statement released on Friday The public spat over who can claim to have captured Soledar is the best evidence yet of bad blood between Prigozhin and the Defense Ministry according to political analyst Abbas Gallyamov a former speechwriter for Putin.   “The one who took Soledar after several months of no victories will certainly win in the eyes of Putin,” Gallyamov told The Moscow Times “[But] the inability to exercise self-control in this dispute suggests that it’s not just about gaining more influence,” Gallyamov added “Something very important must be at stake.” If Russia’s forces were to use the advantage gained around Soledar to push Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut strategic foothold to launch a wider offensive against the Ukrainian-held cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to the north.  Bakhmut also sits on a crucial highway that runs diagonally through Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions the fate of Bakhmut depends on the state of Ukrainian defenses and whether Ukrainian forces have managed to withdraw without major losses from Soledar.  it’s impossible to predict anything at the frontline,” Sharp said “The question is whether the Ukrainians prepared lines of defense whether the units that were in Soledar retain further combat capability,” he said While Soledar’s fall will strengthen Russian positions around Bakhmut the Institute for the Study of War agreed with the general consensus among independent military analysts that its significance in the wider conflict is limited.   “Russian information operations have overexaggerated the importance of Soledar,” the think tank said “Which is at best a Russian Pyrrhic tactical victory.” The leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claimed the capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar early Wednesday with heavy fighting ongoing in the salt-mining town near the city of Bakhmut Ukraine denies Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s statement and it was impossible to independently verify either side’s claim the capture of Soledar would mark Russia’s biggest success in its war on Ukraine following months of retreats elsewhere “Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar… No units other than Wagner PMC fighters were involved in the storming of Soledar,” Prigozhin said in an audio message published by his Concord firm was a “cauldron” of urban fighting He added that the number of captives would be announced later Wednesday A photo posted by Concord's Telegram channel showed Prigozhin posing alongside Wagner troops inside what is identified as a salt mine in Soledar Russian state media reported that Wagner took over Soledar’s salt mines after “fierce fighting.” Prigozhin is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been hit with Western sanctions His public profile has risen in recent months openly criticizing some of the Russian military’s top brass over setbacks in Ukraine The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said Tuesday that Prigozhin aims to use claims of Wagner’s successes in Soledar to boost its reputation as an effective fighting force in contrast with the Russian army.  The capture of Soledar is a key objective for the Russian military in its larger campaign to take control of Bakhmut where Russia and Ukraine have faced off in intense fighting for months while suffering heavy losses The Kremlin however said it was important not to "rush" to declare victory in Soledar Let's wait for official announcements," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said adding that there was a "positive dynamic in advances" in Soledar and saluted the "heroism of our fighters." Russia’s military meanwhile said that its airborne troops have blocked Soledar from the north and south while warplanes are striking Ukrainian strongholds and assault forces are engaged in urban fighting Ukrainian military officials said Kyiv's army hasn't yet surrendered control of the town "Soledar was, is and will be Ukrainian," the strategic communications branch of the Ukrainian military said in a statement, saying pictures released by the Wagner fighting group that Russian media said were taken in Soledar had been taken elsewhere President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was a "difficult situation" in the Donetsk region in his daily night address on Tuesday He praised the "bravery" of Ukrainian soldiers defending Soledar Ukraine’s Defense Ministry this week called the storming of Soledar “masochistic.” “The enemy disregards the heavy losses of its personnel and continues to storm actively,” Reuters quoted Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar as saying Tuesday “The approaches to our positions are simply strewn with the bodies of dead enemy fighters.” "We appreciate that Germany plays a pivotal role in supporting Ukraine throughout the years of war Ukraine is also grateful for your personal commitment," President Volodymyr Zelensky said  (Updated:  May 6, 2025 2:23 am)Drones target Moscow second night in a row, Russian official claims. Debris from one of the drones reportedly fell on the Kashirskoye Highway The reported attack comes just days before Russia's Victory Day parade and three-day "truce." MPs will be able to ask questions and learn more about the details of the agreement in meetings with Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko May 6-7 MP Serhii Sobolev told the news outlet Suspilne The ratification vote is scheduled for May 8 Attacks against the border villages of Bilopillia and Vorozhba damaged civilian infrastructure and triggered emergency evacuations the regional military administration reported "I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous war between Russia and Ukraine ended — now!" U.S Putin's Victory Day truce "doesn't sound like much if you know where we started from," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5 Far-right Euroskeptic candidate George Simion head of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan placed second with 20.99% of the vote and the candidate from the ruling coalition "It requires the continuation of contacts between Moscow and Washington which have been launched and are now ongoing," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said set to operate within the Council of Europe will focus on Russia's political and military leaders up to 20 Russian soldiers were killed and their equipment destroyed The move represents an apparent violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions passed in the wake of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests by Illia PonomarenkoA Ukrainian soldier walks by city ruins in the war zone of Donbas on Jan 2023 ( Edgar Gutiérrez/SOPA Images/LightRocket)The dramatic fight for Soledar is over — although Ukraine's leadership is still reluctant to acknowledge the loss As a result of a localized offensive operation in January Russian forces managed to gnaw through Ukrainian defenses and seize what's left of the industrial town of 10,000 Although fighting in the area continues all fully agree Ukraine doesn’t control the town It's the first noticeable Russian success since their forces captured Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk after fierce fighting in June and July It is also a massive vanity project for Yevgeniy Prigozhyn the Kremlin insider in charge of the notorious Wagner Group And it's a long-desired present for Russian war propaganda which had been craving for at least some progress to show The loss of Soledar is largely the result of relentless human wave attacks exhausting Ukrainian defenses as well as of crushing knockout blows by regular forces The setback also indicates long-lasting Ukrainian issues with chaotic command and control and also the lack of centralized approach and coordination in the area The lack of artillery and munitions to cope with endless and massive Russian frontal assaults has also played its role – it’s given Russian forces a window of opportunity for a resolute strike But despite the Russian propaganda presenting the capture of Soledar as a major victory Russia continues with its attempts to build on the progress and sever the ground lines communications (GLOCs) which became known as the Ukrainian fortress city has become even more complicated — but it is still not critical The Wagner mercenary army has been trying to break through Ukrainian defenses at Bakhmut since at least August has found it hard to reach substantial success in frontal assaults against heavily fortified Ukrainian positions in east Bakhmut Russian attempts to perform a pincer movement on the city from the north and the south have been way too long and painful the Wagner forces managed to make certain gains south of Bakhmut Cutting Bakhmut’s ground lines of communications (GLOCs) is a far more realistic way for Russians to succeed Russians need to take control of three highways: the E40 (M03) Sloviansk-Bakhmut highway northwest of the city the T0513 highway Bakhmut-Siversk north of the city and the T0504 highway running west to Kostiantynivka Russian advances in the area succeeded by just a few dozen or a few hundred meters a day It took Russia nearly three months to advance by some 4 kilometers and seize Kurdiumivka The situation changed by the beginning of 2023 particularly Russia's elite VDV airborne units Russian forces detected weak spots in Ukrainian defenses in Soledar — and pounced at them in full swing Russians approached the town from two strike axes forcing Ukrainian forces into a hard-fought retreat to avoid encirclement formations with Ukraine's 46th Airborne Brigade supplemented with artillery and additional armor managed to somewhat stabilize the situation After short and fierce resistance in the town's western outskirts Ukrainian formations withdrew from the last pockets of Soledar around Jan Russians continued with their attempts to amplify its success and advance farther northwest and west towards Blahodatne where it did not have any immediate progress And Ukrainian forces took up a new position on dominant heights west of Soledar along the T5013 road Russian forces established fire control over two out of three supply lines with Bakhmut namely the road to Siversk and also the junction leading to the Slovyansk highway Thus the use of these ground lines of communication is either impossible or impeded now Russian pro-war media and state propaganda burst out in euphoria after many months without any success but with spectacular setbacks in Kharkiv Russia continues trying to convert this into an operationally significant result that would pose a grave threat to the Bakhmut garrison or even a potential collapse of the Ukrainian front-line section And according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Russian propaganda "have over-exaggerated the importance of Soledar which is at best a Russian Pyrrhic tactical victory." "Russian forces likely captured Soledar after committing significant resources to a highly attritional tactical victory which will accelerate degraded Russian forces' likely culmination near Bakhmut," the think tank said "Russian forces may decide to maintain a consistently high pace of assaults in the Bakhmut area but Russian forces' degraded combat power and cumulative exhaustion will prevent these assaults from producing operationally significant results." a settlement of just some 12 square kilometers will not enable Russian forces to exert control over critical Ukrainian GLOCs into Bakhmut nor better position Russian forces to encircle the city in the short term who continues to position his mercenary army as the single main actor in the operation an important village just south of Bakhmut Klishchiivka is known to have changed hands at least two times over the recent weeks And it is also an important and heavily fortified Ukrainian defense line covering the southern outskirts of Bakhmut the Ukrainian military command does not confirm the Russian presence in Klishchiivka Russian forces may be standing between 3 and 5 kilometers from the Bakhmut-Kostiantynivka road Tom Cooper, an Austria-based warfare expert and author, called the claimed capture of Klishchiivka "no catastrophe but an unpleasant loss." Russians are still facing a fortified city from one side and also several kilometers of open terrain to cross before they can cut the last Ukrainian supply line off "It's harder to find cover in the open field than in a built-up area," the expert said "And the terrain in front of the Russians is largely open all the way to Bila Hora and Chasiv Yar now with which they could drive deep behind the southern flank of Bakhmut's defenses." the southern flank is defended by experienced Ukrainian combat units including the National Guard's 4th Rapid Response Brigade and the army's 28th and 53rd Mechanized Brigades some with additional training in Europe," Cooper said "Problem: the Russians are coming in such numbers and so often that all units ended the day critically short on artillery and mortar ammunition Ukrainians were actually down to mowing down the assaulting Russians by machine guns alone." Ukrainian forces in the Battle of Bakhmut have the will and are determined and they have better tactical skills and usually fight from protected positions But Ukrainian forces still have "no tools to literally destroy the Russians at a faster rate." Another major problem for Ukraine is the lack of proper communications and coordination among "too many troops from too many different units into a much too small area," Cooper said the front-line area currently has elements from nearly 15 different Ukrainian brigades the high motivation and combat experience of Ukrainian units are "all in vain," Cooper said Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023 He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S The city was already in ruins when Tania Synia arrived in Soledar in August 2022 The 26-year-old Ukrainian photographer and humanitarian volunteer traveled to the besieged town in late summer last year to help evacuate civilians less than two weeks after Russian assaults on the small city began in earnest It would be another five months before the eastern Ukrainian city would fall to Russia as the new year dawned Five long months of air strikes and artillery attacks ravaged the salt-mining town as Russia came to see the seizure of Soledar as a path to victory in the larger city of Bakhmut.   The town of Soledar offered little strategic value to Russia's forces beyond a political win Soledar instead represented the elusive promise of Russia's first significant territorial seizure since July 2022 and a notch in Prigozhin's belt amid the onetime Putin ally's quest for political prominence.  bombed-out buildings are what remains of the once-bustling town persists only as proof of the waste of war Soledar was home to just over 10,000 people before Russia invaded Ukraine. The town was most famous for its cavernous salt mines once a popular Ukrainian tourist attraction gave Soledar both symbolic and commercial value amid the escalating war while the town's eastern geography provided Russia an ostensible stepping stone to the larger Donbas region it so sought to occupy Bombings in and around Soledar intensified in July as residents fled. A fire burned in the city center for days with no firefighters left to extinguish it It was mid-July when Serhii Ivanov made his first visit to Soledar The 40-year-old humanitarian worker first traveled to the city to deliver food and other essentials to civilians who initially opted to stay in the war-torn town But as artillery attacks rendered Soledar nearly uninhabitable by August Ivanov's trips to Soledar quickly became evacuation missions Even as early as July, Soledar's residents could see what lay ahead. By the end of that month, Ivanov estimated that only about 2,000 of the town's original 10,000 remained The Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed on August 3 2022 that Soledar was under attack by Russian forces Ground attacks and air strikes centered on the southeastern outskirts of Soledar battered the city in the weeks that followed who led evacuations out of Soledar throughout the summer and fall recalled the two months after the fighting began as particularly volatile "It was so fast and it was so hot," Ivanov said "That's why so many people in August decided to go from Soledar because it was sometimes really dangerous."  Ivanov estimated he evacuated as many as 60 people a day out of Soledar Synia joined Ivanov for one such evacuation trip on August 14 Synia arrived less than two weeks after Ukrainian officials confirmed Soledar was under attack and she estimated the city was already about 90% destroyed.  "You could smell the bombing and the smoke," she said.  with shots ringing out about every 10 minutes Volunteers had little time to convince residents to evacuate before they themselves had to flee.  Russia claimed its forces had advanced into Soledar's residential areas where it was clashing with Ukrainian troops.  Wagner Group forces began their brutal push for Bakhmut via Soledar in earnest a Russia analyst and the deputy team lead at the nonprofit Institute for the Study of War Ivanov stopped evacuations out of Soledar at the end of October Russia's initial objective to capture Bakhmut by sending its soldiers to encircle Ukrainian troops from all sides of the city had petered out thanks to Ukraine's defenses But Prigozhin had set his sights on delivering Bakhmut to Putin on a silver platter that rolled through Soledar.  As the fight for Bakhmut became a slogging stalemate Prigozhin began framing Soledar as a much-needed win for Russia and an opportunity to boost his own profile in the process making early promises that seizing Soledar would lead to Russian victory in Bakhmut Another soldier said he personally witnessed the executions of 80 Wagner fighters who refused to follow such orders It was human waves after human waves," Stepanenko said of the autumn fighting in Soledar "It looked like Wagner was desperate to win They didn't care what would happen to Ukrainian forces they didn't care what would happen to their own forces." As he publicly committed his forces to taking Soledar by any means necessary Prigozhin portrayed a victory there as historically and strategically significant.  "It was just one of the settlements Russia needed to capture to advance further." Ukraine had declared Soledar and nearby Bakhmut the epicenter of the war's fighting Ukrainian officials warned that Russia was likely trying to seize the region to claim some shred of success in its efforts to "liberate" the Donbas The 19-year-old was part of a volunteer medical battalion supporting an official military medical unit.  Today you can go by this road and tomorrow you can't; today you have this road and tomorrow you have a huge hole in the road," she said of the landscape Cherniavska recalled that the shelling was nonstop Drones constantly hovered overhead as she worked — and she said she never knew which drones belonged to which side One night during a casualty-retrieval trip Cherniavska and her crew's car became stuck in the ice-cold river She and her colleagues stood in the freezing water for nearly four hours before she saw a figure crawling toward her "I thought that after all that happened that day "But when I saw the army driver taking out his gun I understood that I'm not hallucinating and somebody is here."  A silent standoff ensued for what felt like hours with neither side willing to make the first move Her team finally received word on the best route back to the hospital and they slipped off to safety.  Cherniavska still doesn't know who that person was or whose side they were on "It was the first time I actually met death face-to-face," she told Insider "They used all the resources they had to try and capture the city as fast as possible Prigozhin quickly positioned himself as the leading figure behind Russia's victory He visited Soledar in the days before it fell and documented his time in the town's salt caves He delivered a triumphant speech from what he claimed to be Soledar's salt mine Prigozhin was also the first to announce the fall of Soledar in what was likely an early attempt to claim credit.  The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed its forces had control of Soledar on January 12 and announced the country would use its position in the town to lay stake to Bakhmut soon Ukraine met Russia's declaration with half-hearted pushback but the truth was clear: Soledar had fallen nearly 11 months after the war first began "The Ukrainian retreat from Soledar was likely because they knew it wasn't worth expanding their own forces in such a devastating assault," Stepanenko said.  the stalemate in Bakhmut dominated coverage of the war for the next four months until it Cherniavska was stationed near the fallen town at a stabilization point that saw about 200 casualties a day through January and February She said most of those men came from Soledar.  "It felt like I had left at least a part of me in Soledar," Cherniavska said.  But her anguish was nothing compared to what she witnessed among the soldiers who arrived from a fallen Soledar "They were psychologically wounded," Cherniavska said Bitter fighting continues in the salt-mining town of Soledar And depending on who is doing the reporting either Russia is poised to take Soledar any time now or Ukrainian forces are valiantly beating off what has been described as “wave” assaults the fighting is reported to mainly involve mercenary troops and ex-prisoners contracted to the Wagner group of mercenaries loosely affiliated to Russia’s military and run by Yevgeny Prigozhin Prigozhin insisted his troops had taken the town only to be gently rebuked by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov: “Let’s not rush … Let’s wait for official statements an expert in international security who has written extensively about the conflict for The Conversation says that the fact there is still heavy Russian bombardment of the town suggests that the struggle for control continues He also believes that the focus has shifted (at least for the moment) from Russia’s aerial bombardment back to land war And that Ukraine’s need for international support in the form of more and superior weaponry remains urgent It’s another strong indication that the war is likely going to be long and costly There have been strong rumours over the past couple of weeks that the Kremlin is planning another mobilisation You’d expect that any such announcement would prompt bitter protest from the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia (CSMR) who led highly effective protests during Russia’s military campaigns in Chechnya and Afghanistan But the group is deeply split over the invasion a senior lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University and Natasha Danilova an expert in politics and international relations at the University of Aberdeen the Russian president has taken the opportunity to meet carefully selected mothers of soldiers to publicise their patriotic support for the war Whether this support holds when a further half million women become the mothers of soldiers who didn’t want to join up When he visited 12 months ago his impression when talking with friends and contacts was that the war simply wouldn’t happen despite the massive troop build up that was so worrying international observers Titov says that most people he met tried to play the war down He says people who were anti-Putin before the war are now even more entrenched in this view Those who supported the Russian president are finding reasons to double down But supermarket shelves remain full and last year’s mobilisation of 300,000 men affected a relatively small number of people – Titov says the only person in his orbit who had been conscripted was a friend of a friend is if you want a true picture of what is happening on the streets of Russia So a popular uprising to topple the Russian president looks highly unlikely as things stand. But what of Russia’s elites those “siloviki” who wield the most influence in Russian politics and the military authoritarianism and regime change at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center says it’s hard to imagine what might happen if high-level Kremlin insiders speak out against Putin or genuinely challenge him Putin has been distributing favours in the form of appointments and added privileges to keep key insiders onside while other powerful people who have dared to question the invasion – such as Ravil Magano the chairman of Russian oil and gas giant Lukoil – have had their voices silenced Magano died after falling out of the window of a hospital in Moscow More military failures could make a lot of important people nervous shops or petrol stations – anywhere with a generator that can provide power which most countries developed during COVID lockdowns have been priceless and some teachers are even instructing pupils who have fled Ukraine to settle in another country Finally, one of the features of the war has been the increasing use of ever-more sophisticated drones, part of the new technology of conflict making dramatic and worrying advances. Jonathan Erskine and Miranda Mowbray, experts in artificial intelligence at the University of Bristol, have charted the rise and rise of autonomous weapons they write – now they have been introduced into warfare it’s almost impossible to think they can be effectively banned But there are things that the international community can do to exert a degree of control over their use Ukraine Recap is available as a weekly email newsletter. Click here to get our recaps directly in your inbox. Russia is struggling to present its claimed success in the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine as a victory Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Defense Ministry said on Friday that the small town located 9 miles north of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region Ukraine has maintained however that its forces are holding out in the region In its latest assessment of the war in Ukraine said Russia's "information space" was having difficulty portraying tactical Russian gains around Soledar as "operationally significant." Russian sources previously suggested that Soledar's capture presaged an "imminent encirclement of Bakhmut" or even a "Ukrainian retreat" as far back as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk "Some Russian sources claimed on January 17 that the capture of Soledar allows Russian forces to cut Ukrainian supply routes between Siversk and Bakhmut (T0513 highway) creating a Russian bridgehead for offensives on Siversk," the think tank said And another Russian source previously said that Soledar's capture will allow Russian forces to take the nearby village of Paraskoviivka and cut a section of the road from Sloviansk to Bakhmut The ISW said the fact that the Russian sources had not identified the key ground line of communication that Russian forces are now better positioned to take or any other operational advantage associated with Russian tactical advances in Soledar "further underscores that the offensive to capture the settlement has not significantly changed Russian operations in the wider Bakhmut area." A day earlier, the think tank assessed that Russian forces were advancing towards the embattled city of Bakhmut after capturing Soledar as part of a "new effort to encircle Bakhmut after months of ineffective frontal assaults." (3/3) Imagery shows that since the start of January 2023, the south and east of Bakhmut has continued to be subjected to intense artillery bombardment. Ukrainian forces almost certainly continue to defend against Russian forces on the outskirts of the city. pic.twitter.com/f2qEt5qDeX The British Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update on the war that Ukrainian forces had likely withdrawn from Soledar by the end of Monday and that Ukrainian forces "almost certainly continue to defend against Russian forces" on the outskirts of Bakhmut "Russia's advance on Soledar primarily consisted of Wagner forces and was a supporting operation aimed to enable the eventual envelopment of the larger settlement of Bakhmut," the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday It added: "One of Ukraine's two main supply routes into Bakhmut is now under increasing pressure." According to the ISW, Putin and the paramilitary unit, the Wagner Group, founded by his ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, have clashed over the capture of Soledar the Russian leader failed to mention Wagner's role in the fighting he attributed success in Soledar to the Defense Ministry Newsweek has reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Kerbut died in Soledar and was laid to rest in Bucha his life and death linked to two of the bloodiest scenes since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began He was 46 years old and served 25 years as a policeman before voluntarily enlisting when the war began  Weeks later the streets of Bucha were littered with civilian corpses a handful of Volodymyr's comrades were holding out as best they could against an onslaught by the Russian army and Wagner mercenaries promises to do everything possible to prevent Soledar and the neighbouring Bakhmut from falling into the hands of an enemy that seems ready to take the cities at any price Bakhmut is another city that has been at the heart of a grinding fight between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the past few months Dr Elena Molchanova ushers patients into a narrow office warmed by a wood-burning stove where she hands out medication and fills in death certificates the last remaining residents in the town shelled daily and cut from essential services are just seeking shelter from the biting cold The 40-year-old doctor is one of just five left in Bakhmut who are now a lifeline to the some 8,000 people local officials say are still in the city that used to be home to 70,000 A man walks by a sign that reads “to Moscow” placed on an old tank displayed at a war museum in Kyiv A boy takes pictures of old tanks on display at a war museum in Kyiv FILE - People walk in a street as smoke rises in the air after shelling in Odesa The United Nations’ cultural agency decided on Wednesday Jan.25 2023 to add the historic center of Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa to the list of World Heritage in danger The decision was made at an extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris French Leclerc main battle tanks fire during an exercise at a training range in Smardan Around 600 French soldiers deployed to Romania as part of a NATO battlegroup on the alliance’s eastern flank carried out live combat exercises on Wednesday to test their preparedness amid Russia’s ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine A Ukrainian soldier looks out of an APC during combat training in Zaporizhzhia region Ukrainian servicemen attend combat training in Zaporizhzhia region The Ukrainian army retreated from the salt mining town of Soledar to “preserve the lives of personnel,” Serhii Cherevatyi a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east The soldiers pulled back to previously prepared defensive positions Russia claimed almost two weeks ago that its forces had taken Soledar Moscow has portrayed the battle for the town not far from the Donetsk province city of Bakhmut as key to capturing all of Ukraine’s Donbas region where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for almost nine years and controlled some territory before Russia’s full-scale invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the safety of ethnic Russians living in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian provinces and two others in late September Ukraine’s military has said its fierce defense of Soledar and Bakhmut helped tie up Russian forces Many of Russia’s troops around Soledar belong to the Wagner Group a private Russian military contractorand the fighting reportedly has been bloody Moscow has prioritized taking full control of the Donbas “Russia is not reducing combat activity in Donbas leaving a scorched desert where the Russian military manages to advance,” Donetsk Gov Taking control of Soledar potentially allows Russian forces to cut supply lines to Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut though the strength of Ukraine’s new defensive positions was not known said earlier this month that the fall of Soledar wouldn’t mark “an operationally significant development and is unlikely to presage an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.” The institute said Russian information operations have “overexaggerated the importance of Soledar,” which is a small settlement It also argued that the long and difficult battle has contributed to the exhaustion of Russian forces Russian strikes wounded 10 civilians in the eastern Donetsk province on Tuesday Five were wounded when Russian shells slammed into apartment blocks The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Russian forces had launched four missile strikes 26 airstrikes and more than 100 attacks from rocket salvo systems between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning the Russian attacks struck settlements in the country’s northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy Two people were killed and three more wounded in Russian shelling of a grocery store in the Kherson province city of Beryslav on Wednesday according to an online statement by the regional government the Russian shelling included 12 attacks on the regional capital said that while he is the same person she met at age 17 “Something has changed: You smile much less now.” “I wish you to have more reasons for smiling KYIV — Russia is throwing waves of Wagner mercenaries into mass attacks on the salt-mining town of Soledar in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said as Moscow looks to envelop the strategic front-line town of Bakhmut “The enemy literally steps on the corpses of their own soldiers covering even their own soldiers with fire,” Maliar said In the early hours of Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Russia’s invading army was concentrating its greatest efforts on Soledar “It is extremely difficult — there are almost no whole walls left,” Zelenskyy added The Russians need to capture Soledar to encircle Bakhmut Moscow’s forces have been storming Bakhmut since mid-summer in a bid to disrupt Ukrainian communications, Britain’s defense ministry said in a statement. “Part of the fighting has focused on entrances to the 200km-long disused salt mine tunnels which run underneath the district Both sides are likely concerned that they could be used for infiltration behind their lines,” the ministry added Bakhmut is Russia’s main military objective in the eastern region of Donbass as well as its main obstacle for the further occupation of Donetsk province Bakhmut was largely destroyed during fighting even though Russian army commanders and Wagner mercenaries’ leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin has been sending waves of hundreds of soldiers to their deaths in attempts to seize it Prigozhin has claimed that every house is a fortification in Bakhmut and soldiers have to fight for every 300 meters there. Russia’s merciless tactics in that area have already won the macabre title of the “meat waves of Bakhmut.” Prigozhin has styled the occupation of Bakhmut as his personal project He claimed that is an important logistics center and a central point of the eastern front “It is a unique landscape — ravines and heights, which are natural tunnels. And the icing on the cake is the system of Soledar and Bakhmut salt mines, actually a network of underground tunnels. There you not only can shelter a cluster of people at a depth of 80 meters-100 meters, but also move tanks and infantry fighting vehicles,” Prigozhin’s press service said in a statement. On January 6, the Russians managed to break into the town and, as of now, Russians likely control of most of the settlement, the British ministry said. the 46th amphibious assault brigade is fighting the overwhelming Russian forces in Soledar “The situation is difficult. Critical. But there are definitely opportunities. We haven’t seen such heroism, chaos, and self-sacrifice even near Kherson, honestly. People do, have done, and will keep doing incredible things,” the 46th brigade said in an official statement on Tuesday there is no other way to explain such a large number of lives left here.” “Due to the resilience of our warriors there we have gained additional time and additional forces for Ukraine,” he said Zelenskyy described Russian tactics near Soledar as madness He claimed it is not clear what Russia wants to gain there Everything in the area is completely destroyed “The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes. This is what madness looks like,” Zelenskyy said. president has previously described such a pact as reimbursement for billions in American aid sent to help Kyiv against Russia’s full-scale invasion Ukraine has created a macabre points scheme based on video games to boost the effectiveness of its soldiers Kyiv fumes over Russia’s Victory Day ceasefire plan ‘Good meeting,’ Ukrainian leader said after one-on-one in St The White House called it “a very productive discussion.” Approximately just one-fifth of the former Russian prisoners recruited to fight against Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group remain Olga Romanova, head of the Rus Seated charity foundation, said in a YouTube video published by the My Russian Rights project that the private military company (PMC) headed by Russian financier and longtime Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin had recruited in the range of 42,000 to 43,000 prisoners by the end of last year That tally has most likely surpassed 50,000 fighters in the present state of the war according to a translation from news outlet Meduza because all the rest are either killed...or missing She also suggested that Prigozhin does not keep statistics on missing or defected prisoners instead writing off such soldiers as deceased whether or not it's factual Meduza reported on Friday about a woman who received an empty coffin from the Wagner Group though she was unaware it was empty at the time Following a burial service for her husband this winter the woman—cited by the alias of Angelina—told media outlet TV Rain that she found out her husband was still alive and fighting in Ukraine The woman also said she found out her husband who had been serving a sentence in an unspecified Russian penal colony was fighting for the Wagner Group only because the relative of another convict had informed her She added that she doubted her husband joined the cause voluntarily because "he treated Ukraine well." After beginning his assignment in the fall the woman said her husband stopped communicating by the winter She later received a call from the Wagner Group itself informing her that her husband was allegedly killed in the Bakhmut region of Ukraine Her family was later given a closed zinc coffin a certificate of honor and a death certificate "They told us that there was no need to open the coffin because before sending [fighters to the war] "They told us that they gave us a 100 percent guarantee that it is him." a political science professor at San Diego State University told Newsweek that prisons are only one source of the group's recruits He cited Russian media reports within the past month in which ads are targeting not just potential fighters but also medical personnel Ukrainian media reports from Belarus indicated that the local military intensified training of their GardServis group—a local Wagner analog or copycat with recruitment efforts targeting security guards and others "Wagner's older training centers in Krasnodar Krai that borders on Ukraine and elsewhere in Russia have continued to train recruits," Alexseev said those media reports could indirectly validate Meduza's report—and yet it is also likely that these efforts are part of a systemic enlargement of Wagner's reach and coordination with the military." Claims of a mostly depleted force comprised of prisoners and mercenaries accompany new reports of tension between Prigozhin and Putin due to the group not living up to its advertised military prowess The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Prigozhin's "star has begun to set" after failed promises of capturing the Donetsk city of Bakhmut "Prigozhin's comments reflect a cowboy approach to war that is unsuited to the development and maintenance of an effective large-scale and disciplined modern military," ISW reported in one assessment Prigozhin has even taken matters into his own hands to dispute a statement on Friday from White House national security spokesman John Kirby that the Wagner Group had been designated a "transnational criminal organization." "Could you please clarify what crime was committed by PMC Wagner," Prigozhin wrote in a short letter in both English and Russian that was shared on his Telegram social media channel Alexseev said reports surrounding Putin and Prigozhin are more complex in reality "I am observing a rugged synergy emerging between Wagner and the Russian military and "The partial and significant redirection of Wagner fighters from Bakhmut to Soledar in somewhat coordinated action with the regular Russian military indicates they are working on greater interoperability with Wagner serving as a power multiplier in combat using the expanding dragnet to capture those who may be outside the draft to be sent to fight against Ukraine Putin surely would want to beef up those synergetic aspects perhaps with strong inducements and threats to both the military and Prigozhin to act together." Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment ET: This story was updated with comment from Mikhail Alexseev The first UN aid convoy to reach the vicinity of the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar since the Russian invasion began nearly a year ago providing support for more than 800 civilians in need Jens Laerke from UN aid coordinating office, OCHA said that three trucks had been granted access to areas under Ukrainian Government control just a few kilometres from the heavily disputed city in the Donbas region as Russian forces seek to advance on the strategically important town of Bakhmut He told journalists at Friday’s briefing in Geneva that the convoy consisted of food “It is intended for 800 people who remain in this area” “which has seen its fair share of hostilities and of widespread destruction so we are happy that this convoy has indeed reached (it’s destination).” More convoys are expected in the days ahead and OCHA Spokesperson Laerke said that the UN and its partners are striving to increase inter-agency relief operations to areas close to the frontlines in Ukraine On another key front and a source of international concern over the battle for Ukraine, the head of UN-backed International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) briefed President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday on the agency’s “expanding and intensifying activities…to help Ukraine ensure nuclear safety and security at its nuclear facilities” according to a press release issued on Friday They also continued discussion to set up a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) which has repeatedly come under fire in recent months triggering deepening nuclear safety and security concerns Grossi stressed that the zone was essential for preventing a severe nuclear accident and said he would press ahead with his efforts to make it happen “Everybody agrees that the plant – located on the frontline in an active combat area – needs to be protected I will not stop until the much-needed zone is a reality I will continue my intensive consultations with both Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the coming days and weeks,” he said “This major nuclear power plant continues to face daily dangers Our team there continues to hear explosions close to the site “Across Ukraine – from north to south – this week has seen a major expansion in the IAEA’s on-the-ground support for the country’s efforts to prevent a severe nuclear accident during the war the IAEA flag is now flying at these important nuclear facilities we will have our top experts permanently present at all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as well as the Chornobyl site Their vital work will help reduce the very real nuclear dangers the country is facing,” Director General Grossi said an IAEA expert team will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky plant With IAEA teams permanently present at all of Ukraine’s NPPs and the Chornobyl site the Agency will have at least 11 nuclear safety and security experts simultaneously in the country an unprecedented undertaking by the organization “We are determined to do everything in our power to reduce the risk of a nuclear catastrophe during this tragic war” “This week was an important step forward in our efforts in this regard The UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday that he did not believe that there was an opportunity yet to organise “a serious peace negotiation” between the warring parties in Ukraine nearly a year on from Russia’s full-scale invasion Addressing the Security Council on Tuesday the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights expressed concern about restrictions to freedom of religion in Ukraine Russians took control of the symbolic town with commercial as well as strategic purposes in mind The city is at the centre of a war of attrition between Ukrainian and Russian forces who have been trying to take it for over six months Serhiy (not his real name) remembers when the last load of salt left Soledar “The last trucks left on May 16,” the 39-year-old miner told IWPR a Russian air bomb fell near the administration building A colleague of mine was close to the explosion and survived Born and raised in Soledar,  Serhiy has spent all his working life in the local landmark mine The town in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk is home to Europe’s largest salt deposits: a vast cavernous network of underground tunnels extending for about 200 kilometres that Russian forces and the mercenary group Wagner in particular targeted for economic and strategic purposes leader of the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group that is spearheading the assault on Bakhmut clearly saw the mining tunnels as a strategic asset He wrote on his Telegram channel that they are “a network of underground cities…it not only [can hold] a big group of people at a depth of 80-100 metres but tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can also move about” told IWPR that "at this moment we cannot comment on these issues We will be able to return to this topic after the liberation of the temporarily occupied territories" Soledar’s history is intertwined with salt The town of 10,000 people was given that name in 1991: it means “a gift of salt” Such is the scale of the salt mines that geologists claim that less than five per cent of the seam has been removed since industrial mining began in 1881 Explored reserves amount to about five billion tonnes Until February 2022, Artemsil, Ukraine's largest salt producer and one of the world’s biggest, produced about two million tonnes of salt, accounting for 94 per cent of Ukraine’s production, and exported about 40 per cent to Europe.  the company continued to work in the first weeks of the war but had to cease operations in April 2022 marking the first time the mines had been idle since World War II “Russian forces damaged the railway network near the factory It became difficult to ship the salt,” one 34-year-old miner told IWPR on condition of anonymity.  The company managed to evacuate some stocks but Ukraine’s household salt brand disappeared from the shelves in the summer of 2022 about 80 per cent of the city worked at Artemsil There were entire generations of workers,” Volodymyr Niziyenko “When it became dangerous for people to work processing and shipping the salt indefinitely.. "[At the beginning] only the security and technical personnel remained." Artemsil evacuated some of their workers; many residents left with private means the shafts of one of the mines were destroyed in the fighting This makes it impossible to access: the vertical metal construction allows workers to go down into the tunnels which are about 260 metres below the ground and to transport the extracted salt.  A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Donetsk regional state administration told IWPR that three of the main four mined caves have been damaged.  “Russians shelled all above-ground buildings including the main administrative building…burned down with all its documents,” another 35-year-old worker told IWPR  Niziyenko said that it was difficult to estimate the level of damage “there is simply no source to gather evidence of Russian looting on Artemsil…they are destroying the country's infrastructure” The last 500 residents left in January; some managed to evacuate with the Ukrainian army othesr were forcibly taken to Russian-controlled territory.  One part of the entrance is just gone,” a miner explained to IWPR.  when will we return to our Soledar?’ said a 45-year-old worker All the miners interviewed asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.  Russian media reported that Artemsil was an opportunity to replace salt imports from Belarus and Kazakstan which increased after Moscow banned Ukrainian salt from its market in early 2015 in the wake of the war in Donbas Artemsil held about 24 per cent of Russia’s salt market.  One of Artemsil’s miners told IWPR that in February Russians announced on social networks the preliminary recruitment of workers although just who will be employed is questionable as the town has been flattened.  The last salt grains Artemsil managed to get to Ukraine-controlled territory and the unsold stocks the company had were not lost. In late February the company released Solidarity: Ukrainian Rock Solid Strength - a batch of 100,000 200-gramme boxes produced to mark the first year of Russia’s invasion Each box costs 500 hryvnas (14 US dollars) and all profits go to buy drones for the defence intelligence Journalists need training and support to properly cover war crimes trials Activists warn that vulnerable domestic workers risk abuse often returning with serious health conditions sacrifice and luck secured a vital early win in the south-eastern campaign Some women face Adana's male-dominated traffic chaos for a living Recent murder highlights widespread discrimination and violence against LGBTI people Open source intelligence (OSINT) can provide facts – but impatient Tel +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Tel +1 202 393 5641 IWPR is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom (charity reg no: 2744185); in the United States as a not-for-profit organisation with tax-exempt status under IRS section 501(c)(3); and as a charitable foundation in The Netherlands The opinions expressed on iwpr.net are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting Site design by IWPR. Developed by AG Prime You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed The battle for Soledar raged in freezing temperatures on Wednesday with Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claiming to have taken control of the eastern Ukrainian salt mining town as its fighters poured fire on a pocket of resistance in the centre Kyiv said earlier its forces were holding out The Ukrainian military's morning summary made one mention of Soledar Seizing Soledar has been a key objective for Russian commanders who hope to take the strategic city of Bakhmut and Ukraine's larger eastern Donbas region "Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar A cauldron has been formed in the centre of the city in which urban fighting is going on," Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin Prigozhin further added that "the number of prisoners will be announced tomorrow." While the British Defence Ministry earlier said Russian troops and Wagner's mercenaries had probably taken control of most of Soledar after four days of advances Prigozhin's comment seemed to suggest that Russian control was incomplete The Russian state RIA news agency later issued a report claiming the Wagner Group took over Soledar’s salt mines -- located in the town's outskirts -- following "fierce fighting." Washington has said Prigozhin may want personal control of the area's mines Soledar's capture would have a particularly symbolic significance for Moscow and be its substantial gain since August after a series of humiliating retreats throughout much of the second half of 2022 Russian forces have been fighting for months to capture Bakhmut But any victory would come at a massive cost with both sides having taken heavy losses in some of the most intense fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine almost 11 months ago Kyiv has released pictures in recent days showing what it says are vast numbers of Russian soldiers strewn dead in muddy fields