The fate of a shattered mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance on Wednesday as Ukrainian forces resisted a fierce offensive in what has become a bloody focus of attention after almost 11 months of war.
Russian forces, with the help of planes, mortars and rockets, attacked Soledar in what a Ukrainian military official claimed was a relentless attack.
The officer, near Soledar, commented to the news agency PA that there is a pattern that starts with the Russians sending in one or two waves of soldiers, many from the Russian private military contractor Wagner Groupsuffering heavy casualties as they test the Ukrainian defenses.
After Ukrainian soldiers suffer casualties and are exhausted, the Russians send in a new wave of highly-trained soldiers, paratroopers or special forces, said the Ukrainian official, who asked to speak on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The fall of Soledar, which is unlikely to turn the war around, would represent a prize for a Kremlin desperate for good news on the battlefield. It would also offer Russian soldiers a springboard to conquer other areas of the Donetsk province that remain under Ukrainian control, such as the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut.
Donetsk and the neighboring province of Lugansk, which together make up the Donbas region which borders Russia, is Russia’s main territorial objective in its invasion of Ukraine, but the fighting has stalled.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar and Forces Eastern Ukraine Group spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty rejected Russian claims that Soledar had fallen, but Malyar acknowledged heavy fighting in the city.
On Tuesday night, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group, claimed on his Russian social media platform that his soldiers had taken control of Soledar, though he admitted that the fight continued in a “cauldron” in the center of the city. The news agency PA could not verify that version.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared on Wednesday that Russian forces had achieved “a positive dynamic in the advance” on Soledar, but did not declare its capture. “We don’t have to rush. We better wait for the official statements, ”he added.
Soledar, known for its extraction and processing of salt, has little intrinsic value, but is located in a strategic point 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the town of Bakhmut, which Russian forces want to surround.
(By Andrew Meldrum – AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com