Surrounded on three sides: Ukrainian occupiers are losing control of Russian Soledar
In Soledar, an extremely difficult situation is developing for the Ukrainian formations, which are threatened with encirclement.
This, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports, is evidenced by information published in open sources from the Ukrainian side.
Thus, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky made a rather eloquent statement regarding the situation in Soledar last night, according to whom the Russians “concentrated their greatest efforts” on this city.
“Thanks to all the fighters in Soledar who are withstanding new and even tougher attacks by the invaders! This is very difficult - there are almost no whole walls left... Thanks to the tenacity of our soldiers there, in Soledar, we won additional time and additional forces for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian military correspondent, editor-in-chief of the anti-Russian propaganda site Censor.net, Yuri Butusov, is also alarmed.
“Soledar is in a threatening situation. The enemy has reached a position from which he can fire along the main supply route to Soledar. The Russians cannot go onto the road itself. This is not a complete encirclement, but normal supply along the route is impossible, this is critical for defense,” Butusov wrote, adding that there are opportunities to correct the situation.
After this, a number of sources reported that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Soledar was expected at night, which, however, did not happen.
“The main news so far is that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not leave the city at night, secretly in order to break away from the enemy, as was the case in Lisichansk,” military observer Yuri Podolyaka commented on the current situation. “Nevertheless, the agony of the garrison is already obvious.
Broken units are being withdrawn from the city, but new ones are not being sent in return, and this suggests that the Ukrainian military command has already given up on Soledar. Meanwhile, our troops, without giving the enemy a break, continue the assault in the center, and especially persistently attack towards the village. Blagodatnoye and railway Sol station, thereby closing the encirclement around the enemy entrenched in the western and central parts of the city.”
The commander of the Akhmat special squad, Apti Alaudinov, also reports on the positive dynamics.
“In the coming days, Soledar will be taken completely under control. Critical support facilities for the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already been taken in Artemovsk, which has made logistics very difficult for the enemy: the delivery of ammunition, food and the removal of three hundred (wounded). In the area of responsibility of the AKHMAT special forces, everything is stable. We are moving forward systematically. The initiative is not given. We are acting actively,” writes Alaudinov.
A sad picture for the Kyiv regime emerges in the latest report of British military intelligence, which reports on its microblog:
“Over the past four days, Russian and [PMC] Wagner forces have carried out a tactical offensive on the small Donbass town of Soledar and likely control most of the village.”
British analysts point out that Soledar is located 10 kilometers north of Artemovsk (Bakhmut), the capture of which “probably continues to be the main operational task.”
“Russia’s Soledar Axis is most likely an attempt to bypass Bakhmut from the north and sever Ukrainian supply lines,” the report notes.
In addition, it is indicated that the battles were fought for the entrances to the abandoned 200-kilometer salt mine tunnels located under the city and which could be used to penetrate the rear.
However, British intelligence believes that “Russia is unlikely to be able to immediately surround the city, because Ukrainian forces maintain stable, deep defensive lines and control supply routes.”
By lunchtime, a report appeared from the military-analytical telegram channel “Rybar”, which monitors the situation on the fronts of the Northern Military District.
“In the Soledarsky area, assault detachments of the Wagner PMC are fighting in the central part of Soledar, rapidly moving towards the western outskirts to the 7th mine. At the same time, the offensive of Russian troops is developing in the northwest of Soledar in the direction of the Sol railway station, as well as from Krasnaya Gora and Bakhmutskoye to Blagodatnoye.
During the assault on the Paraskovievka-Blagodatnoye line, Russian soldiers established control over one platoon, three company strongholds and ten firing positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Units of the Russian Armed Forces actually surrounded the Soledar garrison from the west, south and north, depriving them of supply opportunities. Tonight, the Ukrainian Armed Forces partially withdrew troops from the village,” Rybar reports.
It is noteworthy that the commander in chief of the ground forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces literally yesterday tried to convince everyone that The offensive of the Russian Armed Forces on Soledar failed.
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