Fierce fighting in Ukraine’s Soledar leaves battlefield littered with bodies – Zelensky
KYIV/SIVERSK: Russia has launched a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by Wagner contract militias around the salt mining town and nearby fronts. did.
Soledar is located a few miles from Bakhmut, in the industrial Donbas region, where troops from both sides are suffering heavy casualties in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on the Telegram messaging app on Monday that Ukrainian forces had repelled an earlier attempt to capture the city, but that large units of the Wagner Group had quickly turned back, under heavy artillery cover. Deployed more troops under the new strategy.
Malayar said, “The enemy literally stepped over the corpses of their own soldiers using massive artillery, MLRS systems and mortars.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not mention Soledar or Bakhmut at a routine media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile attack on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russian prisons and known for disproportionate violence, it has been active in conflicts in Africa and has played a major role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. Its importance lies in a network of underground cavernous mine tunnels that can hold large groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines, he said on Saturday.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that the fighting at Bakhmut and Soledar was “the most intense on the entire front line,” with little progress being made by either side in freezing conditions.
“So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield … either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.
“They attack our position in waves, but the wounded die as a rule where they lie, either from exposure or from too cold or from loss of blood. No one comes to help them or leave the battlefield.” He is not coming to collect the dead.
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports from the battlefield.
no buildings remain intact
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in video remarks on Monday night that Bakhmut and Soledar were standing firm despite the widespread destruction.
He cited new and fierce attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls were left standing and the ground was covered with Russian corpses.
“Thanks to the resilience of our troops in Soledar, we have gained extra time and extra strength for Ukraine,” Zelensky said. He didn’t say what he meant by gaining time or power.
But Ukrainian officials, led by Commander in Chief General Valery Zaluzny, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major assault on Ukraine, possibly the capital Kyiv.
Zelensky also appears to be counting on securing more, sophisticated weaponry from Ukraine’s Western partners to fend off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.
On Monday, he emphasized diplomatic efforts while speaking to Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic, the current president of the 27-member European Union.
He said, ‘I am sure that our soldiers at the front will get these weapons and equipment. Very soon, ”he said.
France, Germany and the United States have pledged to send armored fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian demand. Sky News, citing a Western source, reported that Britain is considering supplying tanks to Ukraine for the first time. Britain’s Ministry of Defense did not comment.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia.
The United States has imposed sanctions on companies and individuals who are accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones used by Russia. The White House said last week it was looking at ways to target Iran’s production of unmanned warplanes through sanctions and export controls.
attack waves
Military analysts say the strategic military advantage for Russia of capturing Bakhmut and Soledar would be limited.
Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and Ukrainian army officer, said that apart from a personal victory for Prigozhin, there is no point in capturing Soledar, although it would be easier to take than Bakhmut.
“This is his personal war,” Berezovets said on YouTube.
A US official has said Prigozhin is eyeing salt and gypsum from mines believed to be more than 100 miles underground and containing auditorium-scale caverns.
Berezovets said Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say the attacks come in waves of small groups, no more than 15, with the first wave usually wiped out. Pro-Russian forces retreat and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.
“The complexity of the fighting in cities such as Bakhmut and Soledar is that it is difficult to determine who is with you and who is the enemy,” he said.
At an evacuation center in nearby Kramatorsk, 60-year-old Olha said she fled Soledar after moving from one apartment to another as each was destroyed in tank battles.
“Not a single house is left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half,” said Olha, who gave only her first name.