Zelenskyi adviser warns of massive rocket fire in Ukraine - "Sooner or later it will happen"
Created: 01/11/2023 12:04 PM
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi, Andreas Schmid
New wave of attacks: according to experts, Kyiv could soon be shaken by explosions again in the Ukraine war.
© Ukrin/dpa
Russia announces the capture of Soledar, Kyiv is preparing for new attacks from Belarus.
All information in the news ticker.
Strategically
important Donbass city
Soledar
: "Putin's cook" announces capture
Ukraine
prepares for possible
Kiev attack
: Attack from Belarus?
Russian advances
in
Donbass
: Wagner mercenaries advance in Soledar.
This
news ticker
on the military situation in the
Ukraine war
is constantly
updated
.
Update from January 11, 11:25 a.m .:
According to the Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich, Kiev soon expects another massive attack by Russian missiles and kamikaze drones from Iran against the whole of Ukraine.
"Sooner or later this will happen," he said, according to the
Unian
news agency in an interview with the Russian ex-politician and human rights activist Mark Feigin.
As an approximate date, he gave the period between January 12th and 15th.
Although this does not necessarily have to be the case, the assumption is based on the timing of earlier attacks.
Ukraine War: Confusion Over Soledar - US Experts Disagree Claims of Putin Mercenaries
Update from January 11, 10:10 a.m .:
Russian claims that Soledar was completely taken and that the city of Bakhmut is therefore on the verge of being surrounded apparently does not correspond to reality.
This emerges from the latest situation report by the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
"Even considering the most generous of Russian claims, a capture of Soledar would not mean the immediate encirclement of Bakhmut," the paper reads.
In addition, the capture of Soledar does not necessarily grant Russian troops control of Ukrainian communication lines to Bakhmut.
The Russian military has been trying to take Bakhmut for months, but so far without success.
War in Ukraine: Kiev's general staff does not mention Soledar in situation report
Update from January 11, 8:35 a.m
.: Observers consider the fact that Soledar is not mentioned in the most recent military situation report to be an important indication: the strategically important city could be lost to the Russian attackers.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported repelled attacks at 13 different locations.
But Soledar was not among them.
Soledar is considered an important building block of the Ukrainian fortress wall in front of the conurbation between Slowjansk and Kramatorsk.
It is the last metropolitan area in the Donbass region that the Ukrainians still control.
The financier of the Russian mercenary group "Wagner", Yevgeny Prigozhin, had previously reported the conquest of Soledar.
Battle for Soledar: probably more than 500 civilians in the Donbass city
Update from January 11, 6:19 a.m
.: There are probably more than 500 civilians in the contested Soledar.
"Some of them would like to leave the city immediately, but this is not possible because of the intense fighting at the moment," Ukrainian military administrator of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kirilenko said on TV.
"Unless there is a safe way out of the city, there is no evacuation."
Strategically important Donbass city Soledar: "Putin's cook" announces capture
Update from January 10, 8:52 p.m
.: After days of heavy fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar, members of the notorious Russian mercenary group Wagner announced the conquest of the place.
According to the Russian state agency TASS, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Tuesday evening that Soledar had been conquered.
A group of Ukrainian soldiers was still surrounded in the center of the village.
"The number of prisoners of war will be announced tomorrow," Prigozhin was quoted as saying.
A telegram channel of the Wagner group also said that the encircled Ukrainian soldiers had been given an ultimatum to surrender by midnight.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
There was initially no comment from the Ukrainian side.
Update from January 10, 10:10 p.m
.: Soledar remains the epicenter of the Ukraine war.
According to information from Kyiv, Russian troops continued their assault attacks on the city of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.
"Heavy fighting to defend Soledar continues," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said on Telegram in the evening.
"Regardless of the losses, the enemy continues to attack." The front of the Ukrainian defense lines is "littered with the corpses of the attackers".
The regular Russian troops are also supported by various mercenary troops, including the infamous Wagner group.
This published video images on Telegram on Tuesday that allegedly come from the center of Soledar.
The less meaningful recording, which shows two hooded soldiers in front of a damaged administration building, could not be independently confirmed.
Ukraine prepares for possible Kyiv attack: Attack from Belarus?
First report from January 10, 8 p.m.:
Kiev – The Ukrainian military is preparing for a possible new attack by Russian ground troops in the direction of the capital Kiev.
Russian soldiers are said to be moving to Kyiv from Belarus, of all places.
Recently, there had been repeated speculation about a Belarusian entry into the war.
Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko met his confidant Vladimir Putin in December - but denied any war plans.
Kyiv, in turn, is now preparing precisely for such an attack.
The reports reached the world community on the day that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise trip to eastern Ukraine.
Defense positions in the north of the country have already been prepared or reinforced, said Lieutenant General Oleksiy Pavlyuk, who is responsible for the defense of Kiev.
In order to prevent rapid tank advances by Russian units, larger minefields were laid at all points accessible to tanks.
If the attackers could not get through these barriers, it would be easier for Ukrainian artillery to smash the troop concentrations.
Right at the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in February last year, the Ukrainian armed forces repulsed an advance by Russian troops from Belarus towards Kyiv.
A column of Russian tanks and vehicles many kilometers long was decimated in the dense forests north of Kyiv and forced to retreat.
more on the subject
Is Putin forcing Belarus into the Ukraine war?
What speaks for and against a dangerous Lukashenko turnaround
Russian advances in Donbass: Wagner mercenaries advance in Soledar
The Ukrainian leadership fears another attack by the Russian army, which has been stationing stronger units along the Ukrainian border in Belarus for several weeks.
Military experts believe that Russian units in Belarus are not yet strong enough to launch such an attack.
Nevertheless, they are tying down Ukrainian troops, who are missing on other front sectors as a result, for example in the Donbass region of Soledar near Bakhmut.
British intelligence reported on Tuesday Russian gains in the region.
Regular Russian troops and Wagner units have made tactical advances over the past four days.
They probably controlled most of the place.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia has now shelled the city 86 times, saying it was "virtually destroyed".
Wagner fighters from Putin's friend Yevgeny Prigozhin ("Putin's cook") have been trying in vain for months to take the city of Bakhmut.
Now they could achieve a decisive turn in the struggle for the strategically important Donbass city.
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