“The fiercest and most violent fighting continues today in the Soledar area,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar told a press conference.
According to her, “despite a difficult situation, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting tirelessly.
»
Once known for its salt mines, Soledar is located 15 km northeast of the town of Bakhmout, which Russian forces have sought to take for months.
For the military analyst Anatoly Khramchikhine, the capture of this city, of around 10,000 inhabitants before the war, now completely destroyed, would allow Moscow to finally brandish a military victory, after a series of humiliating setbacks.
"Any win is important, especially because there hasn't been a win for a while," he said.
Andreï Baïevskiï, a pro-Russian separatist deputy from the Donetsk region, underlines for his part that the capture of Soledar would make it possible to "cut the Ukrainian supply lines" which make it possible to defend Bakhmout.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Poland ready to deliver Leopard tanks to kyiv, within an international coalition
On Wednesday, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, had claimed responsibility for taking Soledar, before being quickly contradicted not only by kyiv, but also by the Russian Ministry of Defense with which he maintains relations of rivalry.
“We hold on”
“Russia is sending thousands of its citizens to the slaughterhouse, but we are holding on,” hammered Ganna Maliar, praising “the resilience and heroism” of the Ukrainian forces.
After several defeats in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin resolved in the fall to declare the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and launch a campaign of strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
In Bakhmout, under the bombs, doctor Elena Moltchanova, 40, continues as best she can to provide care to the thousands of civilians, often elderly, who have remained in the city.
“There are not enough insulin syringes and needles.
Stocks of heart medications are running out very quickly,” she laments.
But impossible for her to imagine leaving the city “as long as there are people here”.
Oleksiy Stepanov came for the death certificate of his 83-year-old neighbor, who died at home.
Its windows had been blown out by the bombardments.
“People are scared,” he says.