Wagner Group Claims Control of Soledar as Fighting Continues in Eastern Ukraine | Europe | T.W.

The head of the Wagner private military company, Yevgueni Prigozhin, confirmed that units of the group had taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, however, urban fighting with Ukrainian forces continued.

“Wagner’s divisions have taken control of the entire territory of Soledar,” Prigozhin was quoted as saying by his news service on Wednesday (11.01.2023).

“A pocket has been created in the center of the city in which urban battles are fought,” he said.

“The number of prisoners will be announced tomorrow,” Prigozhin said, stressing that only fighters from the Wagner group and no other unit participated in the attack on Solidar.

For his part, Denis Pushilin, the interim head of the Russian-annexed Donetsk region, promised that “the liberation of Solader increases the possibility of liberating Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) and Siversk.”

Although Russian paramilitary group Wagner confirmed that it had taken control of the city, the Ukrainian military, for its part, vowed that Soledar “will always be Ukrainian”.

“Solder will always be Ukrainian!” The Ukrainian military wrote in a Telegram that it was not true that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, had been found in the city’s salt mines as claimed by the state agency. Russian RIA Novosti below a photo.

Some information surrounding the war in Ukraine cannot be independently verified.

CP (efe, afp)