Vladimir Putin’s forces are likely to have seized control of most of a town in eastern Ukraine as they battle for access to 200km long disused salt mine tunnels, British defence chiefs said on Tuesday.
They believe that the Russian military and Putin’s “private army”, the Wagner group, have succeeded in “tactical advances” into Soledar in the eastern Donbas region.
However, they also stressed that Putin’s forces are “unlikely” to be able to “imminently” capture the key town of Bakhmut as Ukrainian soldiers are so well dug in to defend it.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence in London said: “In the last four days, Russian and Wagner forces have made tactical advances into the small Donbas town of Soledar and are likely in control of most of the settlement.
“Soledar is 10km (6.2 miles) north of Bakhmut, the capture of which likely continues to be Russia’s main immediate operational objective.
“Russia’s Soledar axis is highly likely an effort to envelop Bakhmut from the north, and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication.”
The briefing added: “Part of the fighting has focused on entrances to the 200km-long (124 miles) disused salt mine tunnels which run underneath the district. Both sides are likely concerned that they could be used for infiltration behind their lines.
“Despite 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.”
Officials in Kyiv said Russia had stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, forcing Ukrainian troops to fight waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.
Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.
Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
“The enemy literally step over the corpses of their own soldiers, using massed artillery, MLRS systems and mortars,” he said.
Reports were emerging of Wagner soldiers fighting close to the administrative building in central Soledar.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction.
He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.
“Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength,” Mr Zelensky said. He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.
Russia’s defence ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile strike on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.
Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Putin.
Drawing some recruits from Russia’s prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold big groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and Soledar is “the most intense on the entire frontline”, with little advancement by either side in the freezing conditions.
“So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield ... either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.
“They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield.”
