The Ukrainian navy mentioned on Wednesday it had repelled Russian assaults at 13 totally different places and reported that heavy preventing was persevering with within the hard-fought small city of Soledar within the japanese Donbass area.
“The front in the Donetsk region is holding,” Zelensky mentioned in his each day video deal with on Wednesday night. “Fighting is continuing and we are doing everything to strengthen Ukrainian defences.”
“Now the terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our city of Soledar – a city that was almost completely destroyed by the invaders – is some kind of property of Russia,” Zelensky mentioned.
In order to carry all the Donetsk area beneath its management, the Russian navy is trying each to assault Bakhmut and to disrupt provide routes to neighbouring Soledar, the Ukrainian navy command in Kiev mentioned on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, the infamous Russian mercenary group Wagner mentioned its forces captured Soledar after days of heavy fight, based on Russian state news company TASS.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner group’s chief, mentioned {that a} group of Ukrainian troopers was nonetheless encircled within the centre of the contested city.
The Kremlin has not formally confirmed the seize of Soledar, however has spoken of a “positive dynamic.”
“There is positive momentum in advancing there, but military success is achieved when we reach the goals set by the commander-in-chief in the course of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov mentioned on Wednesday, based on the Interfax news company.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has described the state of affairs within the territories of Ukraine annexed in violation of worldwide legislation as “difficult.”
“In some areas, fighting is continuing,” Putin added throughout talks with authorities officers on Wednesday. “But all this is no reason to pause and postpone the most urgent issues.”
Putin instructed the Russian Cabinet to attract up a plan for the event of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Luhansk areas within the coming months – taking a look at infrastructure and social providers, for instance.
Also on Wednesday, the Kremlin appointed one more commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, simply three months after naming the earlier one.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov as the brand new commander, the ministry mentioned.
It additionally demoted the earlier commander, Sergey Surovikin, who took over solely in October, to turn into Gerasimov’s deputy and named two others as further deputies.
Moscow justified the reshuffle by citing an “expansion of the scale of the tasks to be solved” in addition to the necessity for nearer cooperation among the many numerous branches of the armed forces.
Meanwhile, Poland has taken the choice to offer the Ukrainians with Leopard battle tanks for a corporation as a part of a coalition with allied states, President Andrzej Duda mentioned on Wednesday within the western Ukrainian metropolis of Lviv after a gathering with Zelensky and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda.
According to a Polish navy professional, the corporate contains 14 battle tanks.
Zelensky warmly welcomed Poland’s resolution. “Many thanks to President [Andrzej] Duda, the Polish government and all our Polish friends,” Zelensky mentioned on Wednesday night.
“[The Western-made tanks are] the work of our entire anti-war coalition and a new level of our potential,” Zelensky mentioned.
