Putin Critic And Wagner Group Head Yevgeny Prighozin Claims His Fighters Have Taken Soledar

Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin proclaimed that his soldiers have taken the Ukrainian town of Soledar. This makes Russia’s first major battlefield victory in recent months. Kremlin officials have yet to verify the operation’s success, however, Western officials already said that a large portion of the contested town was already in Russian hands.

According to The Guardian, Prigozhin announced that his mercenary units have taken the entire territory of Soledar in an audio message on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. However, the message said that some fighting still remains in the city streets. He added that Ukrainian troops were surrounded in the city’s center adding that the number of prisoners taken will be announced the following day. The mercenary leader also highlighted that Wagner PMC alone was responsible for the city’s capture and no one else. Denis Pushilin, a Russian proxy official in eastern Ukraine, told Russian media that the center of Soledar, was already under the control of Wagner units.

Prigozhin also released a photograph of himself, alongside his soldiers as they posed in front of what was supposed to be one of Soledar’s salt mines. The location of the photo was seen as an intentional crack at U.S. officials that claimed his group was interested in acquiring salt and gypsum mines around the area.

Other sources said that Prigozhin used the Ukraine conflict as an opportunity to expand Wagner PMC and publicly proclaimed ownership of the group. He has often criticized many of the Russian military’s leaders, Sergei Shoigu in particular, for incompetence and poor decision-making in Russia’s so-called “special military operation,” which led to many setbacks on the battlefield.

Shoigu had not been seen on the frontline for some time and thus has been the subject of public criticism in recent weeks. He has been blamed for many of the military’s failures, which grew even further after an unknown number of Russian troops were killed in a rocket strike in Makiivka, in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has denied that the town of Soledar had been taken as a spokesperson from Eastern Defense Forces of Ukraine said on Wednesday that Prigozhin’s claims were untrue and advised to wait for details in the General Staff report.