Ukraine Says Strike Kills Over 100 Russian Soldiers in Soledar

Kyiv said its forces killed more than 100 Russian troops in an attack in Soledar, as a fierce battle in the Donetsk oblast continues to rage.

Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said on Telegram that the Russian troops had been identified and faced artillery fire and a strike by a Tochka-U missile.

This led to "the destruction of more than 100 occupiers," and Russian military equipment the post said, according to a translation. The post included a video of smoke rising from the ground after several explosions.

Russia's capture of Soledar and the city's salt mines, located nine miles north of Bakhmut which has been fought over for months, would have symbolic and military value for Moscow. But there are claims from both sides about its status which have not been independently verified.

The Wagner Group of mercenaries fighting for Moscow and led by the Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin have been focused on taking Bakhmut for months. Its press service said on Tuesday that its units had taken control "of the entire territory" of the Soledar.

However, this was rejected by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who said in his nightly address that Soledar was "almost completely destroyed" but that the eastern front was "holding."

The governor of Donetsk Oblast, Pavlo Kyrylenko, also denied Moscow's claims as he described how Russian siege tactics to capture the town had trapped around 550 residents.

"There is no clear front line, it is a broken curve, and the enemy is trying to advance in all positions," Kyrylenko told the Kyiv Independent.

Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that "fighting is fierce in the Soledar direction" and that Russian troops were "moving over their own corpses."

"Russia is driving its own people to the slaughter by the thousands, but we are holding on," she added.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Tuesday that the reality over who controls the town "is obfuscated by the dynamic nature of urban combat."

Meanwhile, General Oleksiy Gromov, from the Russian Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said at a briefing on Thursday that it was "inappropriate to estimate in percentage terms which part of the city we control and which part the enemy is trying to control."

"The battles are going on, the battles are fierce. For now," he said.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment.