Capture of Soledar will not provide occupiers with the encirclement of Bakhmut, - ISW
The capture of Soledar does not lead Russian troops to the main logistical routes and does not guarantee the occupiers the encirclement of Bakhmut.
Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russian researcher at the Institute for the Study of War, said this in an interview with hromadske , Censor.NET reports.
"It is not a fact that this is exactly what is happening on the spot, but considering the scale of the Ukrainian defense in Bakhmut and the recent smaller attacks after the capture of Soledar, it is safe to say that Bakhmut will hold out. And our assessment remains unchanged: Soledar was not the breakthrough victory that it portrayed by Russian propaganda," she said.
Stepanenko noted that the Russian PMC "Wagner" threw many of its mercenaries into battle in order to advance to Bakhmut. However, when the attack reached its climax, the Russians realized that this would not work and tried to capture Soledar, where they drew part of their elite forces.
"That's why we say that the elite forces of Wagner, which operated in previous operations around the world, had to be used to seize one settlement. This demonstrates their inability to get at least some large-scale progress in Ukraine at this moment," the ISW representative emphasized.
