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Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces are "far from" capturing the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine despite recent reported advances in the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The ISW, a U.S.-based think tank, assessed on Wednesday that despite recent Russian advances in Soledar, and multiple claims from Russian sources, Moscow's forces have not yet fully captured the town.
The Wagner Group, the mercenary organization founded by Russian billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2014, said on Tuesday that it had taken control of Soledar though pockets of Ukrainian resistance were holding out in the center.
"Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar [...] No units other than Wagner PMC [private military company] fighters were involved in the storming of Soledar," Prigozhin said in an audio message published by his business, Concord, on Tuesday, adding that Soledar was a "cauldron" of urban fighting.
He said again on Wednesday that Soledar in the Donetsk region had been captured by Russia.
"Once again, I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar from units of the Ukrainian army. Civilians were withdrawn, Ukrainian units that did not want to surrender were destroyed," he said through his Concord press service.
Prigozhin added: "About 500 people were killed. The whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers."
The ISW said the claims about advances in Soledar continued to generate discussion among Russian sources about the likelihood of Moscow's forces capturing Bakhmut, which has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war in Ukraine.
Some Russian sources have begun discussing "an implausible collapse of the current Ukrainian frontline and a Ukrainian retreat" as far back as the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the think tank observed.
The ISW said current Russian discussion about the "imminent capture of Bakhmut" and the "collapse of Ukrainian defensive lines" are "divorced from the current operational reality in the Bakhmut area, where Russian forces remain far from severing Ukrainian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) needed to encircle Bakhmut."
Russian offensive operations to capture Bakhmut have likely culminated due to degraded operational capabilities, it added.
Russian forces in the region encompassing Bakhmut and Soledar are being led by members of the paramilitary organization, the Wagner Group. According to Ukrainska Pravda, 90 percent of Bakhmut's residents have fled, with the 8,000 residents who remain subject to daily fire.
Ukraine's military has denied the Wagner Group's claims that it had captured Soledar.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministries for comment.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more