RUSSIAN FORCES MAY CONTROL MOST OF SOLEDAR: UK

Tue 10 January 2023:

Ukrainian troops are repelling waves of attacks led by the Wagner Group around the salt mining town of Soledar and nearby fronts, officials in Kyiv have said.

Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said.

Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, is located close to Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.

Meanwhile, UK’s Ministry of Defence said, Russian and Wagner forces are probably in control of most of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar after tactical advances in the last four days, the British defence ministry has said in a regular intelligence update.

“Soledar is 10km north of Bakhmut, the capture of which likely continues to be Russia’s main immediate operational objective,” it said.

“Russia’s Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication.”

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 10 January 2023

Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/aFDNytdSEu

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/5Bg8NCKRNt

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 10, 2023

Almost no walls left’ in Soledar, says Zelenskiy, as fierce fighting continues

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction.

He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.

“It is extremely difficult – there are almost no whole walls left … Due to the resilience of our warriors there, in Soledar, we have gained additional time and additional power for Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.

But Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.

Russian troops are making another attempt to advance on the town of Soledar in the eastern Donbas region, according to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar. Russian attacks in recent days have focused on Soledar in an apparent effort to cut off the town.

The capture of Soledar, which lies to the north-east of Bakhmut, would put Ukrainian forces in the area in danger of being encircled and offer Russia a potential avenue of approach against that city.