Wagner Group Prigozhin confirms full liberation of Soledar, Officers began fleeing 3 days ago

1. The head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed the complete liberation of Soledar, his press service said on Telegram.

"Once again, I want to confirm the complete liberation and cleansing of the territory of Soledar from units of the Ukrainian army," Prigozhin said.

Civilians had been evacuated from Soledar, 500 Ukrainian soldiers who did not want to surrender were killed, he added.

Earlier, Prigozhin announced that the group's units had taken control of the entire territory of Soledar, and a cauldron had been formed in the center of the city, in which battles were being waged.
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*2. Officers of the Ukrainian armed forces began fleeing the city of Soledar in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) three days ago, abandoning the personnel surrounded by Russian forces, Vladimir Novikov, codenamed Aalabay and commander of the Troy Russian volunteer special forces unit, told TASS on Wednesday.*

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said that Russian troops had blocked Soledar from the north and south, and fighting continued in the city.

According to Novikov, as soon as the Russian intelligence detects the redeployment or retreat of officers from a populated area to which Russian troops are actively advancing, it becomes clear that the Ukrainian army "gives up on these positions". "They have been doing this consistently since 2014. As soon as ‘things get a bit too hot’, attempts begin to evacuate the officership," he noted.
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*3. Earlier, Yan Gagin, a military-political expert from the DPR, told TASS that there were many mobilized Ukrainians among the servicemen captured during the fight for Soledar. According to Rodion Miroshnik, former ambassador of the Lugansk People's Republic in Moscow, Ukrainian troops have lost about 25,000 people in the battles for Soledar and these losses are irreparable.*
Soledar is of strategic importance for the Kyiv regime: the city is located in the center of the Artemovsk-Seversk defense line. The Armed Forces of Ukraine erected powerful defensive fortifications here. The liberation of Soledar will cut the direct route between #Seversk and #Artemovsk, and cover Artemovsk from the north.
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