(Bakhmout) The Ukrainian army was still defending Soledar on Thursday despite a “difficult” situation and “fierce fighting” in this small town in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces are trying to conquer at all costs to reverse the course of the war.
“The fiercest and most violent fighting continues today in the Soledar area,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar told a press conference.
According to her, “despite a difficult situation, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting tirelessly”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised on Thursday to provide “everything necessary” in terms of equipment to soldiers resisting Russian assaults in Bakhmout and Soledar.
“I want to emphasize that the units defending these cities will be supplied with ammunition and all the necessary in a rapid and uninterrupted manner,” Zelensky said on Facebook after a meeting with his staff.
Formerly known for its salt mines, Soledar is indeed located 15 km northeast of the city of Bakhmout that Russian forces have been trying to take for months.
For the military analyst Anatoly Khramchikhine, the capture of Soledar, a small town of around 10,000 inhabitants before the war, now completely destroyed, would allow Moscow to finally brandish a military victory, after a series of humiliating setbacks.
PHOTO LIBKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Ukrainian soldiers in position near Soledar
“Any win is important, especially because there hasn’t been a win for a while,” he said.
Andreï Baïevskiï, a pro-Russian separatist deputy from the Donetsk region, underlines for his part that the capture of Soledar would make it possible to “cut the Ukrainian supply lines” which make it possible to defend Bakhmout.
“Solar […] open [aussi] possibilities of artillery fire in the direction of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka” further west, he again observed on Russian television.
On Wednesday, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, had claimed responsibility for taking Soledar, before being quickly contradicted not only by Kyiv, but also by the Russian Ministry of Defense with which he maintains relations of rivalry.
On Thursday, however, the Kremlin praised “the gigantic work” and “the heroic actions” of Wagner’s men on the front line.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
On a map of eastern Ukraine released Thursday by the Russian Defense Ministry, Soledar did not appear in the red zone under Moscow’s military control.
“We hold on”
“Russia is sending thousands of its citizens to the slaughterhouse, but we are holding on,” hammered Ganna Maliar, praising “the resilience and heroism” of the Ukrainian forces.
After several defeats in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin resolved in the fall to declare the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and launch a campaign of strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Without presenting figures, Mme Maliar said on Thursday that Russian troops fighting at Soledar “suffer heavy casualties […] trying unsuccessfully to break through our defence.
PHOTO LIBKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Smoke rises from a battle zone between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Soledar on January 11, 2023.
Kyiv for its part did not quantify its killed and wounded in the area, but Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, had recognized Wednesday “significant losses”, in an interview with AFP.
In Bakhmout, under the bombs, doctor Elena Moltchanova, 40, continues as best she can to provide care to the thousands of civilians, often elderly, who have remained in the city.
“There are not enough insulin syringes and needles. Stocks of heart medication are running out very quickly,” she told AFP.
But impossible for her to imagine leaving the city “as long as there are people here”.
Oleksiy Stepanov came for the death certificate of his 83-year-old neighbor, who died at home. Its windows had been blown out by the bombardments. “People are scared,” he says.
Russian objectives unchanged
The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valéri Guerassimov – a regular interlocutor of Vladimir Putin – was also appointed Wednesday evening at the head of the troops deployed in Ukraine, replacing General Sergei Surovikin.
This one will have directed the operations only during hardly three months, marked by the retirement of Kherson (south).
This reorganization was justified by the Russian Ministry of Defense by “an enlargement of the scope of the missions to be accomplished”.
But it could also be due to the failures already attributed to General Surovikin, such as the unsuccessful tactic of massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – which did not bring Kyiv down – or even the Ukrainian bombardment at New Year’s Eve in Makiivka which killed between 89 (according to Moscow) and 400 Russian soldiers.
“Vladimir Putin did not talk about new goals,” Peskov said on Thursday.
Finally, while Kyiv affirmed that Russia was preparing for a new massive mobilization even if it meant closing the borders, a 24-year-old Russian soldier, Marcel Kandarov, was sentenced by a military court in Ufa (Urals) to five years in prison. jail for refusing to fight in Ukraine.
Five things to know about the Battle of Soledar
salt mines
Prior to the conflict, Soledar was just a small town of about 10,000 people primarily known for its salt mines. Its name also means “gift of salt” in Ukrainian and Russian.
The Soledar salt mines are the largest in Europe. In particular, they are crossed by 200 kilometers of underground galleries, which can represent several tactical advantages in time of war.
“Bloody” Battle
“Everything that is happening today in the direction of Bakhmout or Soledar is the bloodiest scenario of this war,” Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, told AFP on Wednesday.
Even the Kremlin, usually tight-lipped about military casualties, admitted that the Russians had paid a “pretty high price” to advance to Soledar.
Russian mercenaries
The battle for Bakhmout, of which that of Soledar is only a part, is mainly fought, on the Russian side, by the mercenaries of the paramilitary group Wagner, led by a renowned businessman close to the Kremlin, Evguéni Prigojine.
For military analyst Anatoly Khramchikhine, Wagner’s role in Ukraine is “quite important” and the group has “a number of important advantages” compared to the regular Russian army: “better training and at the same time less formalities [administratives] and bureaucracy”.
Rivalries
Beyond the military aspects, the battles for Soledar and Bakhmout have also exposed the bitter rivalry which, according to many analysts, exists between Wagner and the regular Russian army.
For Mr. Khramchikhine, it was “obvious” that Wagner and the Ministry of Defense would be in competition in Ukraine, given the magnitude of the forces and means available to the paramilitary group.
Return to Victory
If analysts dispute the strategic importance of Soledar, there is no doubt that the Russian authorities will seize the opportunity to claim an important victory, after suffering spectacular setbacks.
“Any win is important, especially because there hasn’t been a win for a while,” Khramchikhin said of Soledar. “Strategically, it could make things easier for Bakhmout,” he adds.