Russia's Soledar Announcement Highlights Internal Wagner Conflict: ISW

The way Russia announced that it had captured Soledar displayed the conflict between the Wagner Group of mercenaries fighting for the Donetsk town and Russia's Ministry of Defense, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The U.S. think tank said there had been a "significant backlash" within the pro-Kremlin information space about the Russian Ministry of Defense's (MoD) initial lack of recognition for Wagner's role in the purported capture—rejected by Kyiv—of the Donetsk town.

The MoD later acknowledged that Wagner volunteers and assault detachments took part in the battle and that a "heterogeneous grouping of troops" had executed a "joint plan" in the Soledar direction.

Wagner is led by the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Vladimir Putin ally but Russian military forces critic, who has publicized the role that his troops have played in the battle for Soledar.

The ISW said on Friday that prominent military bloggers have described "an ongoing conflict between the Russian MoD and Prigozhin behind closed doors."

Some military commentators believed that Prigozhin had "overpowered the Russian MoD's deliberately vague rhetoric," which had forced the Kremlin to end its longstanding policy of not openly recognizing Wagner and its war efforts.

The ISW noted how one Kremlin-affiliated milblogger had said that Prigozhin and the Russian MoD are trying "to undermine each other" with Prigozhin himself not recognizing the Russian armed forces "as a participating force on the battlefield."

The ISW also said that the Russian MOD's mention of Wagner forces was a "significant victory" for Prigozhin who is likely to use the Soledar campaign "as a bargaining tool to elevate his authority in Russia."

Despite Russia's claims about Soledar, the situation in the salt-mining town that Moscow says can be used as a springboard for an attack on the city of Bakhmut around nine miles further south has not been independently verified.

A spokesman for Ukraine's eastern military command, Serhiy Cherevatyi, said on Friday that its forces were holding out, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that the battle there continues.

Meanwhile, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, told Ukrainian television that Soledar "is controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, and our military controls it."

"However, there are both urban battles and battles outside the city, because the enemy is trying to advance in several directions," he added, according to a translation.

The 46th separate airmobile brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is defending Soledar, confirmed that fighting continues on the outskirts of the city, and that as of Saturday, around 550 people remained in the city, Ukrainian news portal Lviv News reported.

Odesa military administration spokesman Serhii Bratchuk released a video he said shows that at least the western part of the city is under the control of Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.