An assault towards Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in Soledar resulted in 25 deaths, Ukrainian officers claimed on Wednesday.
The strike got here after current Russian statements of victory within the Ukrainian salt-mining city situated 9 miles from one other closely contested battle space, Bakhmut. The paramilitary Wagner Group, headed by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has led forces in Soledar.
A video initially posted by the Basic Workers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Fb was reposted by Rob Lee, senior fellow on the International Coverage Analysis Institute, on Twitter. He stated the strikes have been carried out by Ukraine’s forty fifth artillery brigade on Wagner troopers.
The video reveals a long-range view of troops in trenches, caught within the crosshairs and shortly taken out.
“An enemy assault on the positions of our soldiers was thwarted by aimed artillery hearth,” the Basic Workers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine posted on Fb. “Collectively we’ll win!”
After Kremlin-installed authorities within the Donetsk area stated Friday in a Telegram assertion that “Russian troops liberated Soledar,” Russian officers appeared to have cooled down on proclamations of victory within the war-torn metropolis.
As identified Wednesday by the Institute for the Examine of Battle (ISW), a U.S.-based suppose tank, Russia’s “data area” was having issue portraying tactical Russian positive factors round Soledar as “operationally important.”
ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Apart from tactical pursuits, Russian President Vladimir Putin implied on Friday that the Russian Ministry of Protection, not the Wagner Group, deserved credit score for positive factors made in Soledar.
It wasn’t till after Prigozhin accused the ministry of not acknowledging his forces’navy prowess that Russian officers issued a press release praising the “brave and selfless actions” of Wagner Group fighters.
Whereas Russian sources beforehand advised that Soledar’s seize presaged an “imminent encirclement of Bakhmut” or a “Ukrainian retreat” way back to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the ISW beforehand alluded to Russian goals involving the slicing of provide routes between Siversk and Bakhmut.
A part of that mission may embody the tried seize of the close by village of Paraskoviivka to chop a bit of the highway from Sloviansk to Bakhmut.
Calls of Russian victory in Soledar may be untimely, in response to British protection officers who as of Sunday stated that Ukrainian forces have “virtually actually maintained positions” within the city.
“The informational struggle is sadly taking place not solely on the battlefield however extra within the heads of our folks,” a Ukrainian soldier named Kiyanyn stated in a TikTok video message dated January 16. “And numerous work must be executed to enhance this as hundreds of individuals like me are doing our work on the frontline, and doing it very properly.”
Newsweek reached out to Lee and the Ukrainian and Russian protection ministries for remark.
