Seizure of town would represent substantial gain for Moscow after series of humiliating retreats
Ukraine’s military has denied that Russian forces have encircled and captured the eastern town of Soledar, after claims by the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that the town had fallen.
Prigozhin also insisted that only units of his paramilitary company – many of them convicts who have been offered a pardon if they fight for him – had been involved in fighting for the town. Russian forces have recently focused their efforts on the capture of Soledar as part of their ambitions to take the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut and Ukraine’s larger eastern Donbas region, with fierce battles centred on the city in sub-zero temperatures over the past five days.
The British Ministry of Defence said earlier that Russian troops and Wagner fighters had probably taken control of most of Soledar after four days of advances.
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