Leader of Russian Wagner Group Mercenary Claims Control of Soledar City, Kills 500 Ukrainian Soldiers

JAKARTA - A private Russian military company claims to have taken control of the salt mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, after fierce fighting that killed hundreds of Kyiv soldiers.

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said his troops had captured all of Soledar and killed about 500 Ukrainian soldiers after heavy fighting.

"I would like to confirm the liberation and complete cleansing of the Soledar area," Prigozhin said in a statement, citing Reuters, January 12.

"The whole city is littered with the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers," Prigozhin continued.

In contrast, in a statement on Facebook, the Ukrainian military's general staff said Russian forces suffered heavy losses as they tried to seize Soledar and cut off Ukraine's supply lines.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mocked Wagner's earlier claims of seizing parts of Soledar, but did not immediately comment on the latest statement.

"The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our city of Soledar... is some kind of Russian property," President Zelensky said in a video speech. "But the fighting continues."

Separately, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday he could not confirm reports of Soledar falling into Russian hands.

Russia is known to have struggled to cement control of the city, in what would be Moscow's biggest gain since August, after a series of retreats before a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south.

If pro-Russian forces manage to seize Soledar, it will be a stepping stone in Moscow's bid to seize Ukraine's eastern Donbas industrial region.

It will serve as a base from which to attack the nearby town of Bakhmut, which has held out for months and is a hub for supply lines in eastern Ukraine.

Prior to Wagner's latest statement, the Kremlin stopped claiming victory and admitting heavy casualties.

"Let's not rush, let's wait for the official statement. There are positive dynamics underway," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Earlier, Russia's RIA state news agency said Wagner had taken control of the Soledar salt mine, while a photo on the militia's Telegram channel showed Prigozhin and his fighters inside a mine.