Russia says its forces have taken control of Ukraine’s Soledar

Al Jazeera :
Moscow’s forces seized control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar late on Thursday, after weeks of intense fighting, Russia’s defence ministry has said.
“The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces,” the ministry said on Friday.
Control of the eastern salt-mining town would allow Russia to cut off Ukraine’s “supply lines” in the nearby, strategically important city of Bakhmut and then “block and encircle the Ukrainian units there”, said the ministry.
Ukrainian officials cited by Reuters denied Moscow’s claim.
“The town is not under Russian control,” the spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command told the news agency.
If Soledar has fallen, it would mark a rare military success for the Kremlin after a series of battlefield setbacks and humiliating retreats.
Ukrainian soldiers earlier told Al Jazeera that they expected Soledar to “imminently fall”.
“They said there were very few Ukrainian soldiers left in Soledar and there were plans for getting the remainder of those out,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said, reporting from the outskirts of Bakhmut.
The loss of Soledar would put “huge pressure” on Bakhmut, 10km (6.2 miles) south of the town, said Stratford.
“The scenes inside the city [of Bakhmut] are truly incredible, there is hardly a single building, certainly in the centre, that isn’t partially or completely destroyed,” he said.
“The streets are virtually deserted, there are very, very few civilians and, interestingly, very few military. There was a lot of heavy shelling.
“After two hours or so [inside the city], we were given the alert to move by the Ukrainian special forces because according to their intelligence, about 600 Russian soldiers could be seen entering the northeast of Bakhmut and taking up new positions.”
For days, Kyiv has said its soldiers were holding out in Soledar, in what has become one of the bloodiest battlefields of the entire war.