Russia on verge of biggest gain in Ukraine since summer

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Russian forces have nearly taken full control of Soledar, a small mining town in eastern Ukraine, placing Moscow on the verge of its most significant gain since August.

The town is located just north of Bakhmut, where Ukraine has so far held strong despite some of the fiercest fighting in the war.

In the past few days, Ukrainian troops in Soledar were defending against a vigorous assault from the Russian mercenary company Wagner Group, and fierce fighting was reported in the town’s administrative center on Monday.

The latest signs are that Russian and Wagner forces are now in control of Soledar after a four-day advance, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a statement on Tuesday that fighting is still ongoing in Soledar, which has been largely destroyed by Russian shelling, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that fighting in Soledar was a “difficult and hard battle” for his troops.

“It is extremely difficult — there are almost no whole walls left,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday.

“And what did Russia want to gain there? Everything is completely destroyed, there is almost no life left. And thousands of their people were lost: the whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the strikes.”

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