The town’s fall would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of battlefield setbacks in its invasion of Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia claimed Friday that its forces captured the fiercely contested salt-mining town of Soledar in what would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin after a series of setbacks in its war in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said the fight for the town continued.
Since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Moscow has prioritized taking full control of the Donbas — a region made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, where it has backed a separatist insurgency since 2014. Russia has seized most of Luhansk, but about half of Donetsk remains under Ukraine’s control.
“The liberation of the town of Soledar was completed in the evening of Jan. 12,” said Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, calling the development “important for the continuation of offensive operations in the Donetsk region.” And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Friday, “The tough battle for Donetsk continues. The battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages in the east of our state continues.”
The institute said Russian information operations have “overexaggerated the importance of Soledar,” a small settlement. And it argued that the long and difficult battle has contributed to the exhaustion of Russian forces. Just hours before Russia’s claim, Ukraine reported there had been a heavy night of fighting. In a Telegram post early Friday, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said Moscow “had sent almost all main forces” to secure a victory in the east.
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