Russia claims its forces control Soledar town

Russia has declared that its forces now control the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, after a long and intense battle.

Announcing its first significant victory after six months of military setbacks in Ukraine, the defence ministry in Moscow said its forces had captured the town, long the focus of heavy fighting and bombardment, on Thursday evening.

It said this would make it possible to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger town of Bakhmut, to the southwest, and trap remaining Ukrainian forces there.

Satellite images show damage to buildings in Soledar

However as recently as this morning, Ukrainian officials said the defending forces were “holding on” to the town, despite the intensity of Russian attacks.

Ganna Malyar, Kyiv’s deputy defence minister, said in a statement this morning: “It was hot overnight in Soledar. Hostilities continued. The enemy relocated almost all of its main forces to the Donetsk front and is maintaining a high intensity offensive.”

 “This is a difficult phase of the war,” she added.

The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner had previously claimed on Wednesday his forces had achieved the complete “liberation” of Soledar, a claim denied by Ukraine’s President Zelensky, who said the battle continued.

Last night, in his video address, Zelensky thanked two units which he said were defending Soledar, adding that they were “holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy.” He did not give more details.

He said that he, along with senior commanders of the Ukrainian military, acknowledged the need for reinforcements in Soledar and nearby towns, however.

Both sides have endured heavy losses in the battle for the small town, in what has become one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war.

Kyiv has said Russia threw wave upon wave of soldiers into a pointless fight for a bombed-out wasteland. More than 500 civilians including children are said to be trapped there by the conflict.

In its own statement, the Russian defence ministry today said: “The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces.”

US officials said a Russian victory in Soledar, or even in Bakhmut, a city ten times larger, where the Russians have so far been repelled, would mean little for the overall trajectory of the war.

 “Even if both Bakhmut and Soledar fall to the Russians, it’s not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters at the White House. “And it certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down.”

Today’s claims came as Moscow has been seeking its first major victory after half a year of humiliating retreats.

President Putin is trying to pin the blame for his faltering Ukraine campaign on rogue Wagner mercenaries as he seeks to consolidate his power within a dwindling band of loyalists.

Sergei Surovikin, often nicknamed “General Armageddon”, has been demoted only three months after being given the task of turning the tide of Russia’s war effort following a series of defeats. He has been replaced by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff and a trusted ally of Putin.

The change hints that the Russian leader is seeking to reassert control over the command of the army, with some analysts suggesting Surovikin paid the price for the Kremlin’s reliance on mercenaries to win the war.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, 61, who controls Wagner’s private army — mostly of convicts — on the front line, has also been identified as a growing threat. Abbas Gallyamov, a former speech-writer for Putin, told The Times yesterday: “He invested too much hope into Prigozhin . . . ignoring official structures to such a big extent is not good.” It came a day after Prigozhin was rebuked by the Kremlin for seeking to take the credit for an expected Russian victory in the salt-mining town of Soledar.

The White House has said it suspects that Prigozhin, a catering tycoon who has long had Putin’s ear, was seeking to take control of mines for commercial reasons. In recent weeks, observers have seen signs that his ambitions have irked the Kremlin.

Former Wagner members have told The Times that Prigozhin had regularly been summoned by Putin for private talks and was now seeking to build his own powerbase in Russian politics, while aware that Putin could eliminate the Wagner group if he chose to do so.

Prigozhin has been vocal in his criticism of the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, another Putin ally, throughout the campaign.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political expert, said this week’s reshuffle had dealt a shock to Russian command and Prigozhin’s group. She said Putin, seeking to salvage the underwhelming war effort, was likely to have been influenced by Gerasimov and others who blamed Surovikin for army failures. “Putin is looking for effective tactics against a creeping defeat,” she said. “He is trying to reshuffle the pieces and is therefore giving chances to those who he finds persuasive. Today, Gerasimov turned out to be persuasive. Tomorrow it could be anybody else.”

Surovikin’s tenure saw a number of humiliating setbacks, including the loss of Kherson and much of the Kharkiv region to Ukrainian counteroffensives. Konstantin Sonin, a professor of political economics at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, said the naming of Gerasimov — one of the few people believed to have planned the invasion of Ukraine and among the Russian president’s most loyal followers — was “signature Putin”.

“For more than 20 years, Putin never [appointed] competent or independent people to positions of power. It is always personal loyalty,” Sonin said.

For Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Russia’s long-term strategy is all about “demonstrating to the West that Russia is in this for the long haul, and hoping that we will lose the will and unity to continue to support Kyiv”.

Signs are growing that Putin is losing his cool. During his government’s first meeting of 2023, he publically reprimanded the trade and industry minister, Denis Manturov, over delays in ordering civilian and military planes. “Too long, it is taking too long,” Putin said. “What are you fooling around for? When will the contracts be signed?”