On Friday, January 13 Moscow announced that it had complete control of the town of Soledar.  Ukraine officials dispute any claims of a Russian victory as "information noise." And insist the battle for Soledar continues.

The Wagner Group published photos of its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with fighters inside Soledar's mines. And Ukraine released drone footage of successful battlefield encounters waged in Soledar.

Wagner Group

The Wagner Group is a paramilitary unit also called “Putin’s Army.” With close links to the Kremlin, the growing private mercenary organization has been front-and-center in the battle for Soledar.

With the regular army experiencing losses for the last 10 months the Wagner Group has stepped in. And the division between regular Russian troops and the Wagner group has never been greater. 

According to the BBC, a turf-war has developed over who deserves credit for the advances in the Donetsk Oblast.

Russia's Wagner Group is pushing recently conscripted soldiers to the frontlines. And many of the fighting force prisoners “have nothing to lose” since they are coming straight from Russia’s prison system.

Battle for Soledar salt mines

The battle for Soledar has been a bloodbath for the Russians. And it has been a challenge for the Ukraine forces to defend.

Ukraine chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, made a comparison of the fighting for the Bakhmut area to the World War I battle of Verdun.

Soledar is a small salt-mining town in the Bakhmut region of the Donetsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine. At the time of the Russian invasion, it had a population of just 10,000. But the area has been decimated by the war. And most of the residents have fled.

Most of the buildings have been leveled by rocket strikes. 

During his nightly address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignored Russia’s claims of victory. 

He said that "The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers ... This is what madness looks like."

"The tough battle for Donetsk region continues, the battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages in the east of our country continues.”

"Although the enemy has concentrated its greatest forces in this direction, our troops – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defense and security forces – are defending the state."