January 10, 2023
Ukraine's military said early on January 10 that it conducted air strikes overnight on unspecified Russian positions and antiaircraft missile systems, while fierce fighting continued in the small northeastern town of Soledar where Russian troops are said to be making tactical advances over the past four days.
The Ukrainian General Staff also said the Russian military is waging offensive operations in the direction of several cities in the eastern Donetsk region, including Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Lyman and is seeking to improve its tactical position in the direction of Kupyan.
It said its forces shot down two unmanned enemy drones.
RFE/RL cannot corroborate specific battlefield and casualty claims.
But U.K. intelligence said in its daily assessment on January 10 that it believes Russia's "Soledar axis is likely an effort to envelop" the nearby city of Bakhmut from the north "and to disrupt Ukrainian lines of communication."
The British assessed that "in the last four days, Russian and [Vagner mercenary group] forces have made tactical advances" into the historic salt-mining town of Soledar "and are likely in control of most of the settlement."
They suggested that each side was "likely concerned" about the possible use by the enemy of 200 kilometers of disused tunnels from the Soledar mine running underneath the area.
The Ukrainian military previously said Russian forces redeployed to Soledar in northeastern Donetsk region after failing to take the larger nearby town of Bakhmut.
It said Russian troops started regrouping after Moscow unilaterally called a cease-fire in observance of Orthodox Christmas over the weekend.
Ukrainian troops continue to hold Soledar, Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on January 9, saying reports that Russian troops had seized it were "fake."
"Soledar is the hottest spot, with virtually no infrastructure left, only fortifications and mines," he told Ukrainian television.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Soledar the enemy "regrouped, changed tactics, and launched a new, fierce attack."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the resilience of Ukraine's forces fighting off waves of attacks had helped the country win time and gain strength.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on January 9. The ministry's comments focused on an alleged attack on a vocational school in Kramatorsk that it said killed scores of Ukrainian troops on January 7. But AP reporters who visited the scene could find no evidence of a major attack and local officials told them that no troops had been killed there.
Bakhmut and Soledar lie in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which Putin claims to have annexed. Full control of it and the neighboring Luhansk region, the so-called Donbas, is Putin’s main priority at this stage in the war, analysts have said.
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