Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar reports that the Wagner Group’s armed formations began a “powerful assault” of Ukrainian positions in Soledar, a city in the Bakhmut district of the Donetsk region.
According to the Ukrainian official, after an “unsuccessful attempt” to capture Soledar followed by a retreat, the Russian forces regrouped, replenished their losses, and sent additional assault troops into the area, also changing their tactics.
Maliar reports that “a large number of assault units” formed from the Wagner Group’s “best reserves” has been deployed in the new assault on Soledar. The deputy minister says that Russian troops “are literally advancing over their own soldiers’ dead bodies, with massive use of artillery, multiple rocket launchers, and mortars that cover even their own fighters with fire.”
On January 7, during the “ceasefire” declared unilaterally by Russia, but observed by neither side, forces of the Wagner PMC broke through the Ukrainian defenses around Soledar.
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