Russian forces using jets, mortars and rockets bombarded Soledar in what a Ukrainian military officer said was an unrelenting assault.
KYIV, Ukraine — The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday in one of the bloodiest battles of Russia’s invasion, while Ukraine’s unflagging resistance and other challenges prompted Moscow to shake up its military leadership again.Soledar’s fall, while unlikely to serve as a turning point in the nearly 11-month war, would be a prize for a Kremlin starved of good news from the battlefield in recent months.
The Defense Ministry said expanded military tasks and the need for “closer interaction between branches of the military as well as increasing the quality of supplies and the efficiency of directing groups of forces” prompted the leadership changes. “Once again I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar from units of the Ukrainian army,” Prigozhin wrote on his Russian social media platform. “Civilians were withdrawn. Ukrainian units that did not want to surrender were destroyed.” He claimed about 500 people were killed and that “the whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers.
Taking Bakhmut would disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for the Russians to press toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province. A success in Soledar and Bakhmut would help Prigozhin, who has openly criticized Russia’s military leadership, including Gerasimov, increase his clout in the Kremlin.
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