Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the actions of Russia’s army at Soledar “an insanity”.
“What was Russia going to gain out there? It’s completely destroyed, and almost no life remains in Soledar. They lost thousands of men, the ground there is covered with corpses of occupiers and is bruised with strikes. This is what insanity looks like,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president thanked his country’s servicemen who are “standing against more and more brutal assaults” against the Russian troops. “This is very hard: there’s almost no walls left intact in the town… Thanks to the firmness of our warriors there, in Soledar, we have managed to win some additional time and additional forces for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
PMC Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will continue to use both confirmed and fabricated success in Soledar and Bakhmut to promote his mercenary group as the only Russian force in Ukraine capable of securing tangible gains, the US-based Institute for the Study of War says.