A Russian military commander issued a threat to the Ukrainian forces from within the city of Solidar, which is located in the Donbass region (east), and has been witnessing fierce battles for weeks, while Kyiv requested more Western weapons after a new wave of Russian bombing that left dozens dead and injured.
Yesterday, Saturday, the owner of the Russian private military "Wagner" group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that he would work to send the bodies of all Ukrainian army forces to the Kyiv authorities, stressing that his forces would control the city of Solidar in just two weeks.
These statements come shortly after Prigozhin arrived in the city to honor his forces, and after the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its forces had fully taken control of the strategic city of Solidar near the city of Bakhmut, which it has been trying to seize for months.
Until now, Kyiv denies the Russian statements and confirms that Solidar is still under the control of its forces, although it acknowledges the difficult situation there.
The commander of the Ukrainian tactical air reconnaissance group said that the fighting was still going on, and that the Ukrainian flag was still flying in the western part of the city.
Prigozhin transmits from Solidar.
He introduced the man who commanded the assault on city blocks, and also spoke about the principles of organization and work of Wagner PMC at the front pic.twitter.com/xX6Fl9nqCu
— Koba (@Roberto05246129) January 14, 2023
Fierce fights
For his part, the governor of the Ukrainian province of Donetsk, Pavlo Korlenko, said that Solidar is still under the control of the Ukrainian forces, and he spoke of fierce battles taking place in this city and in neighboring Bakhmut, as well as the losses incurred by the Russian army there.
And Russian media outlets published pictures that they said were from inside Solidar, after the Ministry of Defense announced that it had completed control of it yesterday, and the pictures show what those media said were fighters from the Wagner Group, accompanied by Russian journalists, and the extent of the destruction in the city.
Medics of the Ukrainian army near the city of Solidar (French)
In other simultaneous developments, the governor of Luhansk province - which forms with Donetsk the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine - said that the Ukrainian forces had recovered all the sites that Russian forces had taken control of a few days ago in the Svatova-Kremina axis.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of about 200 Ukrainian soldiers in the military operations carried out by the Russian forces on Friday, and said that its country's forces are continuing their offensive operations, which it described as successful in the Donetsk axis.
In Zaporizhia (southeast), the pro-Russian authorities announced that attempts by Ukrainian forces to bomb the cities of Berdyansk and Melitopol on the southern side of the province, parts of which are controlled by Russian forces, had been thwarted.
Missile bombing victims
On the other hand, the Ukrainian authorities announced that 14 people were killed, 64 were wounded, and 38 others were recovered, as a result of a Russian missile strike that targeted a residential building yesterday in the city of Dnipro (center).
Regions in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv (north) and the city of Lviv (west), were subjected to new missile strikes on Saturday, targeting infrastructure facilities.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushenko announced power outages in most regions of Ukraine due to the recent strikes, and the Ukrainian president and other officials confirmed that most of the Russian missiles had been shot down.
For its part, Reuters news agency quoted Moldovan President Maya Sandu as saying that the border police found the wreckage of a Russian missile near the village of Larga in the north of the country.
The president described Russia's brutal war on Ukraine directly affecting Moldova again.
Missile attack on residential building in Dnipro kills 12, including a child
military aid
After the new bombing wave, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western countries to supply his country with more weapons to confront the Russian forces.
Meanwhile, the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced today, Sunday, his government's intention to deliver 14 "Challenger 2" tanks and other heavy weapons to Ukraine in the coming weeks, indicating that the United Kingdom will start training Ukrainian forces to use these tanks and artillery in the coming days. coming.
The Russian embassy in London replied that the British Challenger 2 tanks would not help the Ukrainian forces change the situation on the ground, but rather would become a legitimate target for the Russian forces.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a German official as saying that Berlin would fulfill its pledge to send combat tanks to Ukraine if Western allies joined in this effort.
For his part, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that he would hold talks during his visit to Berlin on the delivery of German-made tanks.
Last week, the United States, France and Germany pledged to provide Ukraine with armored vehicles for transporting infantry or reconnaissance, namely 40 German "Marder" armored vehicles, 50 American "Bradley" armored vehicles, and the French "MX-10" armored vehicles.