Boasts, Bitterness and Battle

"The tough battle for the Donetsk region continues. The battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages in the east of our country continues."

"Although the enemy has concentrated its greatest forces in this direction, our troops – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defence and security forces – are defending the state."

"They are already fighting among themselves over who should be credited with some tactical advance."

 "It’s a clear signal of failure for the enemy. And it’s another incentive for all of us to put more pressure on the occupier and to inflict heavier losses on the enemy."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian soldiers firing a 152-mm howitzer into the Russian-held town of Pisky, in the Donetsk region, on Monday.  Credit...Nicole Tung for The New York Times

"The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces."

"[The operation in Soledar was carried out by] a heterogeneous group of troops  [but] the direct assault on the residential areas of Soledar … was successfully carried out thanks to the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of Wagner’s assault squads."

Russian Defence Ministry

 

"[Attempts to] steal victory [from his mercenaries in the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, another sign of growing tensions in Russia’s military ranks]."

"They are constantly trying to steal victory from the Wagner PMC [Private Military Company] and talk about the presence of the unknown, only to belittle their merits."

Paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group

 

"Last night artillery fire was like from hell, both sides."

"From what I know, our boys have managed to exit some parts [of Soledar] in an orderly manner and now [assault] groups are counterattacking, but we still hold the town [of Soledar]."

Ukrainian officer

The Wagner group proudly announces that it  has single-handedly captured the town of Soledar, under fire for months by the Russian military but now falling to them. Russia's military is outraged and counters that assertion, claiming it was Russian troops and artillery that managed to capture the town, a nondescript, now completely destroyed town most of its inhabitants have long left. Corpses of both Ukrainian defenders and Russian attackers litter the streets.

 

For the Russian military the claim to have succeeded in routing the Ukrainian defences and capturing the town represents a rare victory in a scene of extended conflict where Russia has suffered one indignity after another from the successes of the Ukrainian counterattacks. Ignominious failure does not suit Moscow, nor President Putin who days earlier replaced the leading Russian commander with another as though the shuffle would usher in badly needed victories.

 

Kyiv, however, denies that the strategic salt-mining town is in the hands of its enemies. The town's capture, if confirmed has a good measure of importance to Moscow; not only representing a rare win after a series of major battlefield setbacks, but it would also cut off access for the Ukrainian military in resupply routes.

 

The town's seizure would allow Russia to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger city located nearby of Bakhmut where another raging conflict, heavy in casualties on both sides has been months in the making. Ukrainian troops remaining in embattled Bakhmut would be vulnerable to capture by Russian troops. 

 

"Our units are there, the town is not under Russian control" insisted Serhiy Cherevatyl, Ukraine's Eastern military command spokesperson. According to CNN, a reporting team located just outside the town heard mortar and rocket fire Friday afternoon, and witnessed the ferrying of troops by Ukrainian forces in an organized pullback. Russians had not, however, fully taken the town, as claimed. 

Over 500 civilians, among them fifteen children, remain trapped inside Soledar. An overnight video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked two units in Soledar that were "holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy".