Russia claim its first battlefield victory after months of slaughter and retreats in Ukraine
RUSSIA claimed its first battlefield victory after months of slaughter and retreats in Ukraine.
Troops seized control of the tiny town of Soledar after waves of cannon-fodder convict mercenaries overwhelmed Ukraine’s defenders.
The shadowy Wagner mercenary group said it spearheaded the assault after failing to capture nearby Bakhmut in eastern Donbas.
Horrific footage appeared to show Russian mercenaries storming trenches and opening fire at close range.
Moscow claimed it completed “the liberation” late Thursday, hours after its Ukraine commander was demoted on Putin’s orders.
General Sergei Surovikin – known as General Armageddon - was replaced as campaign commander by boss of Russia’s armed forces General Valery Gerasimov.
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Analysts said Soledar’s fall could threaten supply lines to Bakhmut where President Zelensky said every inch was drenched in blood.
Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said: “This is a difficult phase of the war".
But the US-based Institute for the Study of War insisted it was a “Pyhrric victory” for Russia after suffering spectacular losses.
They said: “It is not an operationally significant development and is unlikely to presage an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.”
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Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – known as Putin’s Cheff – had vowed to capture Bakhmut before admtting it was impossible as every house “was a fortress”.
Miles of salt-mining tunnels rise in Soledar, raising fears that troops could use them to sneak behind enemy lines.
Russian troops suffered stunning defeats in eastern Kharkiv and southern Kherson last year.
Western officials said the war was now ‘finely balanced” with vast numbers of poorly led Russians’ matched by smaller numbers of better led Ukrainians, armed with better weapons.
Britain has vowed to give Ukraine a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks in a bid to tip the balance in Kyiv’s favour.