{"id":29130,"date":"2023-01-11T01:38:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T01:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29130"},"modified":"2023-01-11T01:38:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T01:38:51","slug":"we-have-taken-control-of-soledar-head-of-russias-wagner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/01\/11\/we-have-taken-control-of-soledar-head-of-russias-wagner\/","title":{"rendered":"We have taken control of Soledar – Head of Russia\u2019s Wagner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The head of Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow\u2019s first major battlefield success since last summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,\u201d said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his Telegram channel late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prigozhin said on Tuesday Ukrainian troops were surrounded in the centre of the town and \u201cthere are street battles ongoing. The number of prisoners taken will be announced tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ukrainian<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denis Pushilin, a Russian proxy official in eastern Ukraine, told Russia\u2019s Channel One that Soledar had been taken. \u201cAt the current time, according to the information I have, the centre of Soledar is already under the control of Wagner units,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prigozhin released a photograph of himself, surrounded by Wagner fighters, in what appeared to be one of Soledar\u2019s salt mines, possibly a deliberate riposte to US officials who have in recent days publicly claimed the controversial businessman is interested in taking over salt and gypsum mines in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not immediately possible to verify the location of the photograph and there was no confirmation forthcoming from Ukrainian officials of Prigozhin\u2019s claims, but there had been suggestions in Kyiv and western capitals over recent days that the fall of Soledar was imminent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in its daily briefing earlier on Tuesday that much of Soledar was likely to already be under Russian control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of the fighting has focused on entrances to the 200km-long disused salt mine tunnels which run underneath the district. Both sides are likely concerned that they could be used for infiltration behind their lines,\u201d said the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his nightly address on Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the \u201cheroic\u201d defenders of Soledar but gave no update on the military situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his address the previous night, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops were withstanding \u201cnew and even tougher assaults\u201d on the city, amid speculation he was preparing public opinion for the loss of the town. He said Russian forces had taken huge losses in the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe area near Soledar is covered with corpses of the invaders \u2026 this is what madness looks like,\u201d said Zelenskiy. He said the town was completely destroyed and that the Ukrainian resilience had won \u201cadditional time and strength\u201d for Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Soledar, Russia\u2019s next target is Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to take since the summer. The capture of the city, which had a pre-war population of 70,000 but has been reduced to ruins after months of intense fighting, has become one of Moscow\u2019s main objectives. Ukraine\u2019s robust defence of Bakhmut has also given the city symbolic importance to Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite the increased pressure on Bakhmut, Russia is unlikely to envelop the town imminently because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control over supply routes,\u201d said the MoD briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wagner\u2019s role in the Soledar offensive is likely to deepen a battle for power and influence in the planning of Russia\u2019s invasion. Prigozhin, a St Petersburg restaurant owner who rose to fame as \u201cPutin\u2019s chef\u201d \u2013 and until earlier this year denied being behind Wagner \u2013 has taken on a much more public role since the invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has recruited directly from prisons and aimed frequent public criticism at top generals, insisting that his troops are more effective than the regular Russian army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to underline once more that no one except for Wagner took part in the storm of Soledar,\u201d said Prigozhin on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western intelligence officers believe the Wagner group is playing an increasingly significant role in Russia\u2019s campaign and that, according to one official speaking on condition of anonymity, \u201cthere\u2019s a realistic possibility that Wagner personnel now make up a quarter or more of Russian combatants\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, their military effectiveness in the Bakhmut sector \u2013 where their forces are concentrated \u2013 is still considered to be limited, with the same official describing the pace of advance as so slow that \u201csometimes it takes two weeks to take a single house\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of Russia\u2019s Wagner mercenary group has claimed his forces have completed the takeover of the Ukrainian town of Soledar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow\u2019s first major battlefield success since last summer. \u201cWagner units have taken the whole territory of Soledar under control,\u201d said Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message released on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8217,7602,5307,1451,10387,11962,9331,9319,5252,5342,5721,11137,5572,10423,5340,11973,9374,3805,9320,11926,71,3457,5217,9317,7972,11325,9030,7333,3401,9178,5180,5555,6348,6886,9318,10292,5251,3954,594,7986,6874,2472],"class_list":["post-29130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-army","tag-bakhmut","tag-britain","tag-businessman","tag-campaign","tag-chef","tag-city","tag-denis-pushilin","tag-invasion","tag-kyiv","tag-losses","tag-make-up","tag-military","tag-mine","tag-moscow","tag-one","tag-population","tag-president","tag-prigozhin","tag-prisoners","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-soledar","tag-storm","tag-street","tag-success","tag-summer","tag-taking-over","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-us","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-wagner","tag-wagner-group","tag-war","tag-will","tag-who","tag-yevgeny-prigozhin","tag-zelenskiy","tag-zelensky"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}