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Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has cited “colossal losses” by Russian forces trying to capture the eastern salt-mining town of Soledar in a sustained offensive that the ministry described as “maniacal” as the community’s fate seemingly hangs in the balance.
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Russian troops are said to have regrouped during an Orthodox Christmas cease-fire with the aim of taking Soledar, in the Donetsk region, and its roughly 200 kilometers of disused tunnels criss-crossing the surrounding area.
Early on January 11, the Ukrainian General Staff claimed that Russia had lost around 490 soldiers the previous day. It said those casualties raised its estimated death toll on the Russian side to nearly 113,000 troops.
Each side in the conflict has classified its casualty figures, and RFE/RL cannot corroborate accounts by either side of battlefield developments in the areas of the heaviest fighting.
On January 10, the boss of the Vagner mercenary group whose soldiers are thought to be spearheading the Soledar offensive, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed that they had taken nearly all of the town but said there was still fierce fighting in a “cauldron” in the town center.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stressed that their troops are still battling in Soledar.
Capturing Soledar and its salt mines would have symbolic, military, and commercial value for Russia and would be Moscow’s most substantial gain in months.
Salt Of The Earth: Deep Inside Eastern Ukraine’s Massive Soledar Mines
Russian forces in Ukraine are trying to capture the eastern salt-mining town of Soledar in a sustained offensive that Kyiv’s Defense Ministry has described as “maniacal.” In 2019, RFE/RL’s Amos Chapple visited Soledar as the salt-mining operation was hoping to crack Western markets.
Kyiv has been eager to highlight the purported toll that the battle for Soledar is taking on Russian forces, including the Vagner mercenaries.
“A country of masochists,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Twitter in reference to the attackers. “Even after suffering colossal losses, [R]ussia is still maniacally trying to seize Soledar — home to the largest salt mine in Europe.”
The Ukrainian General Staff said early on January 11 that its troops had fought off Russian attacks in three eastern regions.
“During the past day, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of Hryanikyvka in the Kharkiv region, Stelmakhivka — Luhansk and Spirne, Rozdolivka, Vesele, Bakhmut, Klishchiyivka, Mayorsk, Vodyane, Nevelske, Krasnohorivka, Maryinka, and Prechistivka in the Donetsk region,” it said.
It also reminded Ukrainians across the country to be alert for possible long-distance air strikes, although the pace of such Russian bombing of civilian and infrastructure targets has eased since the massive bombardments at the end of December and early January.
The British Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence assessment on January 11 noted the announcement of a joint Russian-Belarusian tactical flight exercise in the second half of January.
Addressing persistent fears of a spread of the 10-month-old full-scale conflict, the British Defense Ministry speculated that a new deployment of Russian aircraft to Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus “is likely a genuine exercise, rather than a preparation for any additional offensive operations against Ukraine.”
Russia’s invasion was partly staged in Moscow-allied Belarus, although leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has sought to downplay his regime’s role in the conflict.
The commander of Kyiv’s defenses, Lieutenant General Oleksiy Pavlyuk, said on January 10 that Ukraine’s military had strengthened its defensive positions north of the city and was girding for a potential offensive from across the nearby Belarusian border.
Amid the fierce fighting in the eastern Donetsk region, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise visit to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 10, promising to send more weapons less than a week after Berlin pledged to send infantry fighting vehicles that Ukraine had been asking for.
Baerbock pledged further support before leaving Kharkiv, which was hit by Russian shelling after she left.
“The occupiers are striking again,” Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram, telling residents to stay in shelters.
Baerbock stressed that Ukrainians “should know they can rely on our solidarity and support,” adding that Germany will keep supplying weapons “that Ukraine needs in order to free its citizens who are still suffering under the terror of Russian occupation.”
