Ukraine fights Russian assault on salt mining town along eastern front

Ukrainian firefighters work at the site of a local market, heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the Shevchenkove town, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, January 9, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

KYIV/SIVERSK, Ukraine — Russia has stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.

Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.

Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.

“The enemy literally steps over the corpses of their own soldiers, using massed artillery, MLRS systems, and mortars,” Malyar said.

Russia’s defense ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile strike on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.

READ: Zelensky: Ukraine holding two towns, Russians in new attacks

Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russia’s prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said Saturday that its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold big groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines.

READ: US says Russia’s Wagner Group bought North Korean weapons for Ukraine war

No buildings intact

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction. He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.

“Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength,” Zelenskiy said.

Zelenskiy did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.

Ukrainian servicemen stand next to a 2S3 Akatsiya self propelled howitzer at their position in a frontline, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Anna Kudriavtseva

But Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.

Zelenskiy also appears to be banking on securing more, sophisticated weapons from Ukraine’s Western partners to beat off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.

READ: Putin calls for Christmas truce in move rejected by Ukraine

On Monday, he pressed on with diplomatic efforts, speaking to Peter Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, current chair of the 27-member European Union.

“I am certain that our soldiers at the front will get these weapons and equipment. Very soon,” he said.

France, Germany, and the United States all pledged last week to send armored fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian request. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. Britain’s Defense Ministry did not comment.

Military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Russia of capturing Bakhmut and Soledar would be limited. A U.S. official has said Prigozhin is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines, believed to extend over 100 miles underground and contain auditorium-scale caverns.

Pro-Russian bloggers quoted Prigozhin as saying his forces were fighting for the administration building in Soledar.

The Ukrainian military said reinforcements had been sent to the town, where the low early Tuesday was minus 13 Celsius (8.6 Fahrenheit).

READ: Anger in Russia as scores of troops killed in one of Ukraine war’s deadliest strikes

In an evacuee centre in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.

“There isn’t one house left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half,” said Olha, who gave only her first name.

Two people were killed in a Russian rocket attack on Kramatorsk on Monday evening, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an aide to Zelenskiy, said on Telegram.

Some 25 miles (40 km) to the north in the town of Siversk, Ukrainian soldier Heorhil, 28, said Russian regular forces had replaced less well-trained fighters in the area.

“Unfortunately, both sides are suffering big losses, which means also our units have losses,” he said, speaking near destroyed houses blanketed in snow.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the battlefield reports.

General view of railway lines, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Siversk, Ukraine, January 9, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Marketplace strike

Farther north in the Kharkiv region, a Russian missile strike on a marketplace in the village of Shevchenkove killed two women and wounded four others, including a 10-year-old girl, regional prosecutors said.

READ: Russia attacks Ukraine along frontline from north to south

Badly injured people lay on the ground and rescue workers sifted through piles of rubble, overturned and burning stalls, and a large crater, video footage from police and Ukraine’s presidential office showed. A police officer carried a girl with blood on her face from the scene.

Moscow has not commented on the reports from the village, which Ukraine recaptured from Russian forces in September.