The eastern Ukrainian city known for its salt mines has been the center of days of fierce fighting.
The head of Russia’s mercenary group Wagner has claimed to have secured control of the salt mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, but uncertainty remains amid ongoing fighting in the city centre.
Soledar was the focus of days of intense fighting as Russia viewed it as key to its campaign for the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut and Ukraine’s larger eastern Donbass region.
It has not been possible to verify conditions on the ground and Ukrainian officials have not commented on the situation.
“Wagner units took control of the entire Soledar area. A kettle has formed in the center of the city where urban fighting is taking place,” Russian news outlets reported Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, late Tuesday.
“The number of prisoners will be announced tomorrow,” Prigozhin added. The encircled Ukrainian soldiers were given an ultimatum to surrender by midnight (22:00 GMT), the group said on Telegram.
Soledar is about 15 km (9 miles) from Bakhmut and its capture would have symbolic, military and commercial value for Russia.
Russia’s state news agency RIA later published a report that said the Wagner Group had taken over the Soledar salt mines after “fierce fighting,” while Prigozhin shared a photo of himself surrounded by his mercenaries in one of the mines.
Still, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, expressed caution about the Russian claims.
“Russian forces have not fully captured #Soledar, despite false Russian claims that the city has fallen and #Bakhmut risks immediate encirclement,” read a Twitter thread, noting that Prigozhin himself had acknowledged that urban fighting was ongoing .
heavy cost
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made no mention of control over Soledar in his regular video address on Tuesday night, as he reiterated his call for more Western weapons and said Russia was looking to intensify its military campaign. He did not give details.
But Ukraine’s Defense Ministry tweeted late Tuesday: “Even after colossal losses, Russia is still trying like crazy to capture Soledar – home of Europe’s largest salt mine.”
Ukraine earlier said its forces were still holding positions in Soledar and withstanding attacks from wave after wave of Russian forces seeking their first battlefield victory in months.
The capture of Soledar would be Russia’s biggest win since August, after a series of humiliating retreats in the northeast and south in the second half of 2022.
But any victory at Bakhmut would come at a huge cost, with troops from both sides taking heavy casualties in some of the most intense fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.
Kyiv has released images in recent days that allegedly show many Russian soldiers strewn dead in muddy fields.
Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would be a crucial step towards complete control of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, one of four provinces it is said to have annexed two months ago.