It’s a difficult admission of local defeat for Kyiv. The Ukrainian army admitted on Wednesday that it had ceded the eastern town of Soledar to the Russians two weeks after Moscow announced it would capture it.
“After months of difficult fighting (…) the Ukrainian armed forces left it” to “retreat to prepared positions,” said military spokesman for the Eastern Zone Serguiï Tcherevaty, but refused to specify the timing of this retreat. The Russian paramilitary group Wagner announced that it had already taken Soledar on January 11, followed by the Russian army on January 13. The Ukrainians have so far refused to acknowledge the loss.
According to the Russians, an important step towards Bakhmout
Known for its salt mines, this small town in the Donetsk region of pre-war 11,000 people is near Bakhmout, another hotspot in eastern Ukraine. However, Soledar’s strategic importance has been disputed, with the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believing that it was “not an operationally significant development”.
The Russian army, on the other hand, presents the capture of Soledar as an important step in encircling the neighboring town of Bakhmout, which it has been trying to capture since the summer and where both sides are suffering heavy casualties.
Soledar’s retreat was “controlled, there was no encirclement or massive capture of our soldiers,” assured Serguiï Tcherevaty, who denied any “leaks” by Ukrainian soldiers. Before the withdrawal, the Ukrainian troops inflicted “incredible losses” on the Russians, he continued, stressing that the Ukrainian strategy in the area was “to wear down the enemy.”
A Russian occupation official in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday also claimed Russian troops were advancing in Bakhmout, citing the capture of Soledar as a key factor. However, according to Tcherevaty Tcherevaty, these claims “do not correspond to reality”. “The fighting continues. The situation is difficult but under control,” he added.