The head of the Russian Wagner Group says his forces have taken control of Solidar | Ukraine

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The commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed that his forces have completed control of the Ukrainian town of Solidar, which if confirmed would mark Moscow’s first major battlefield success since last summer.

“Wagner units have taken control of the entire territory of Solidar,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel late Tuesday.

Prigozhin said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces are surrounded in the city center and “there are street battles going on. Tomorrow the number of detainees will be announced.”

Denis Pushlin, a Russian agency official in eastern Ukraine, told Russia’s Channel One that Solidar had been seized. “At the moment, according to the information I have, the Solidar Center is already under the control of Wagner units,” he said.

Prigozhin posted a photo of himself, surrounded by Wagner fighters, in what appears to be one of the Soledar salt mines, possibly a deliberate response to US officials who have publicly claimed in recent days that the controversial businessman is interested in taking over salt and gypsum mines in the area.

It was not immediately possible to verify the location of the photo and there was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian officials of Prigozhin’s claims, but there have been suggestions in Kyiv and Western capitals over recent days that Soledar’s downfall is imminent.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily briefing earlier on Tuesday that many areas of Solidar were likely already under Russian control.

Part of the fighting has centered on the entrances to the 200-kilometer-long abandoned salt mine tunnels that run beneath the area. It is likely that both sides are concerned that they may be used to infiltrate their lines.

In his Tuesday evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the “heroic” defenders of Solidar but gave no update on the military situation.

In his speech last night, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were fighting off “new and even tougher attacks” on the city, amid speculation he was preparing public opinion for losing the city. He said that the Russian forces suffered heavy losses in the battle.

“The area near Solidar is covered in the bodies of the invaders… This is what madness looks like,” said Zelensky. He said that the town was completely destroyed and that Ukrainian resilience had bought “extra time and strength” for Ukrainian forces.

After Solidar, Russia’s next target is Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to capture since the summer. Capturing the city, which had a pre-war population of 70,000 but had been reduced to rubble after months of fierce fighting, became one of Moscow’s main goals. Ukraine’s staunch defense of Bakhmut also gave the city symbolic importance to Kiev.

“Despite the increasing pressure on Bakhmut, Russia is unlikely to encircle the city soon because Ukrainian forces maintain stable defensive lines in depth and control supply routes,” the Defense Ministry statement read.

Wagner’s role in Solidar’s offensive is likely to deepen the battle for power and influence in planning the invasion of Russia. Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg restaurateur who became famous as “Putin’s chef” — and until earlier this year denied being behind Wagner — has assumed a more public role since the invasion.

He recruited directly from prisons and made frequent public criticisms of top generals, insisting his forces were more effective than the regular Russian army.

“I want to emphasize once again that no one except Wagner participated in the Solidar storm,” Prigozhin said on Tuesday evening.

Western intelligence officers believe the Wagner Group is playing an increasingly important role in Russia’s campaign and that, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, “there is a realistic possibility that Wagner personnel now make up a quarter or more of the Russian fighters.”

However, its military effectiveness in the Bakhmut sector—where its forces are concentrated—was still considered limited, with the same official describing the pace of advance as so slow that “it sometimes takes two weeks to capture one house.”

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