Ukraine says mining town holding out against Russian assault

Damaged home in Russian-controlled Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine

By ANDREW MELDRUM

Associated Press

Jan. 11, 2023 Updated 4:55 PM PT

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.

Russian forces used jets, mortars and rockets to bombard Soledar in an unrelenting assault.

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. It would also offer Russian troops a springboard to conquer other areas of Donetsk province that remain under Ukrainian control, such as the nearby strategic city of Bakhmut.

Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province, which together make up the Donbas region bordering Russia, were Moscow’s main stated targets in invading Ukraine, but the fighting has stood mostly at a stalemate.

In an apparent recognition of battlefield setbacks, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the demotion of the head of Russian forces in Ukraine after only three months on the job. The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, was named as the replacement for Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who was demoted to deputy.

During his short time overseeing the troops in Ukraine, Surovikin was credited with strengthening coordination, reinforcing control and introducing a campaign to knock out Ukraine’s public utilities as a pressure tactic. But he also announced a humiliating withdrawal in November from Kherson city, the only regional center Russian forces had captured just weeks after the Kremlin illegally annexed the region. His demotion signaled that Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t fully satisfied with his performance.

Gerasimov, meanwhile, is seen as the top architect of the invasion of Ukraine, and critics have blamed him for Moscow’s military setbacks.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said putting Gerasimov in charge is “an indicator of the increasing seriousness of the situation Russia is facing, and a clear acknowledgment that the campaign is falling short of Russia’s strategic goals.” It added in a tweet that Russian ultranationalists and military bloggers critical of Gerasimov are likely to greet the news with “extreme displeasure.”

The Russian Defense Ministry’s formal explanation was that the leadership changes were necessary because of 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.”

On the battlefield, a Ukrainian officer near Soledar told the Associated Press that the pattern is that first the Russians send one or two waves of soldiers, many from the private Russian military contractor Wagner Group, who take heavy casualties as they probe the Ukrainian defenses. When Ukrainian troops have taken casualties and are exhausted, the Russians send a fresh wave of highly trained soldiers, paratroopers or special forces, said the Ukrainian officer, who insisted on anonymity for security reasons.

Ukrainian officials denied Russian claims that Soledar had fallen, but the Wagner Group’s owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, repeated the assertion of a breakthrough late Wednesday.

“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 that about 500 people were killed and that “the whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers.”

AP was unable to verify his claims.

Ukraine’s military said late Wednesday that Russian forces had suffered “huge losses” in the Soledar fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stopped short of declaring the settlement’s capture, telling reporters Russian forces had achieved “positive dynamics in advancing” in Soledar. “Let’s not rush, and wait for official statements,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky weighed in Wednesday in his nightly video address: “Now the terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that some part of our city of Soledar — a city that was almost completely destroyed by the occupiers — is allegedly some kind of [Russian] achievement.” He said Ukrainian forces in the area are holding out against the Russians.

Soledar, known for salt mining and processing, has little intrinsic value but it lies in the Donetsk region at a strategic point six miles north of Bakhmut, which Russian forces are aiming to surround.

Taking Bakhmut would disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press toward Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.

Soledar’s fall would make “holding Bakhmut much more precarious for Ukraine,” Michael Kofman, the director of Russia studies at the nonprofit research organization CNA in Arlington, Va., said Wednesday.

The grinding war of attrition, with expected heavy casualties, may make Russia’s victory as deadly as a defeat.

“I don’t think the outcome at Bakhmut is that significant compared to what it costs Russia to achieve it,” Kofman said in a tweet.

The Wagner Group, which now reportedly includes a large contingent of convicts recruited from Russian prisons, has spearheaded the attack on Soledar and Bakhmut. Western intelligence has estimated that the Wagner Group accounts for up to a quarter of all Russian combatants in Ukraine.

Delivering victory in Soledar and Bakhmut after months of Russian front-line difficulties would help Prigozhin, who has criticized Gerasimov, increase his clout in what has emerged as somewhat of a rivalry with Russia’s military leadership.

Russian troops have struggled to gain control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the other Ukrainian province the Kremlin illegally annexed in September. Russia also illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. After Russian forces withdrew from the city of Kherson, the battle heated up around Bakhmut.

Putin identified the Donbas region as a focus from the war’s outset, and Moscow-backed separatists have fought there since 2014. Russia captured almost all of Luhansk during the summer. Donetsk escaped the same fate, and Russia’s military subsequently poured manpower and resources around Bakhmut.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces face “concerted Ukrainian resistance” around Bakhmut.

“The reality of block-by-block control of terrain in Soledar is obfuscated by the dynamic nature of urban combat ... and Russian forces have largely struggled to make significant tactical gains in the Soledar area for months,” the think tank said.

An exceptional feature of the fighting near Bakhmut is that some of it has taken place around entrances to disused salt mine tunnels that run for some 120 miles, according to intelligence reports.

Also Wednesday, Putin claimed that Russia had successfully resisted Western pressure, especially sanctions, over its invasion of Ukraine and vowed that his country has enough resources to beef up its military while continuing social programs and meeting other development targets.

“Nothing of what our enemies forecast has happened,” Putin said in a video call with his Cabinet.

“We will strengthen our defense capability and will undoubtedly solve all issues related to supplies to military units involved in the special military operation,” he said, using the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war. Reports have circulated that Russia is struggling to produce enough weapons, equipment and clothing for its troops in Ukraine.

In Poland, President Andrzej Duda said his country is willing to send German-made Leopard tanks to help Ukraine as part of a larger international coalition. Duda spoke after meeting in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with Zelensky, who said Ukraine needs tanks to win the war. In Britain, another staunch Ukraine ally, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said no final decision has been made whether to send tanks.

Meanwhile, the Russian and Ukrainian human rights commissioners agreed to swap more than 40 military prisoners, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The two warring parties have exchanged prisoners multiple times, one of the few areas of cooperation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government has proposed establishing a corridor to bring the wounded to Turkey for treatment.

“We can ensure they receive medical treatment and send them back,” Erdogan said. “This is our humanitarian duty, our duty of conscience.”