Ukraine’s Forces Have Retreated from #Soledar After an Intense #Battle

#Ukraine confirms its troops have withdrawn from #Soledar

The influx of new weapons, tanks and armored carriers comes as Ukraine faces intense combat in the country’s east around the city of #Bakhmut and the nearby salt mining town of #Soledar

which the BBC has not yet been able to verify, Mr Prigozhin is #apparently seen alongside Wagner soldiers in a #Soledar salt mine.

When Russian mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin announced his Wagner units had taken control of the entire territory of #Soledar, the images produced looked #convincing.

Our forces in control of #Soledar despite #Russian onslaught: Ukraine

500 #Ukrainians killed as #Soledar ‘liberated’: Russia’s Wagner group

Our #forces in control of #Soledar despite Russian onslaught: Ukraine

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Kyiv, said #Soledar is of “huge strategic importance” given its #sprawling tunnels.

Everything is completely destroyed, there is almost no life left. The whole land near #Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers and scars from the #strike

The Moscow-backed leader of the occupied areas of Donetsk said Russia’s forces were “very close” to taking over #Soledar. But the gains were coming “at a very high price”, Denis #Pushilin told Russian state TV

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Donetsk region’s Kyiv-appointed governor, on #Tuesday described the Russian attacks on #Soledar and Bakhmut as relentless.

Ukrainian troops are repelling waves of attacks led by mercenaries from #Russia’s Wagner Group around the salt mining town of #Soledar and nearby fronts, officials in Kyiv say.

Zelenskyy added that new and fiercer attacks in #Soledar had left no walls standing and that land on the eastern front was covered with #Russian corpses.

Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in #Soledar, we have won for #Ukraine additional time and additional strength

Kyiv says it is strengthening forces in #Soledar near Bakhmut as it battles attacks by #Russia’s Wagner mercenary group

Ukrainian #authorities are looking for two British volunteers who went #missing in #Soledar, a city located in the Donetsk region.