How were the battles for Soledar going and how difficult was it to liberate itDuring a two-week operation, the fighters of the Wagner PMCs liberated the city of Soledar in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Its streets are already calm, an extensive network of salt mines is being cleaned, and active fighting has moved beyond the city limits — the work of artillery and heavy machine guns can be heard. It was not the first time in Soledar that Ukrainian militants tried to use residential buildings to create a line of defense, hiding behind civilians and infrastructure. The correspondents of Izvestia visited the liberated city together with the employees of the PMCs, learned how the fighting was going on, what tactics were used and what the "assortment" of captured weapons says.
Tear the distance
— Now the enterprise is under our full control and there is already a conditionally safe zone here, except for artillery shelling, nothing threatens you anymore, — an employee of the Wagner PMCS explains the situation at the entrance to the Artemsol mines.
Near the entrance to the enterprise is the former position of the Ukrainian heavy machine gun. There are boxes of Italian and German cartridges for it. The machine gun itself was American. From the position along the street for 30-50 m we see the casings from the machine gun, frozen into the ice. Apparently, one of the militants tried to move away from the destroyed position, firing back.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
There is also a building used as a location for militants, but destroyed by an accurate artillery strike. The hit had to be almost in the center of the roof. Everything is burnt out inside, smoke is still rising from the embers.
— We are facing a really serious opponent and serious resistance from Ukrainian nationalists. But I can say one thing: despite all their professionalism, we are superior to them in all respects. The city is our element, and it's useless to compete with us here! — the PMCs fighter continues his story.
Almost all "musicians" say that they are stronger than the enemy in close urban combat, their advantage is fully realized when they manage to "break the distance". But this requires competent tactics, coordination of detachments among themselves, with artillery and aviation.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— The artillery is working out firing points, and while the Ukrainian militants do not have time to raise their heads, we are storming the house. We immediately rush into battle, they do not have time to understand what is happening. At such moments we are faster, we are sharper, we are more prepared," our interlocutor explains the success of the Wagner assault groups.
Peace Shield
In Soledar, Ukrainian militants once again tried to use residential buildings to create a line of defense covered by civilians and infrastructure. But they did not have time to turn the city in the engineering sense into a single fortified area of the VFU. For all the eight years that the truce lasted after the signing of the Minsk agreements, Soledar was considered a rear settlement for Ukrainian formations. Since the beginning of the SVO, they tried to build a fortified area here, but did not have time.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
On one of the edges of residential development, for example, there are communication passages and trenches laid directly on the lawns of residential buildings, and a pair of anti-tank hedgehogs made in a hurry. The idea of the Ukrainian commanders is visible, but, fortunately, they did not have time to fully implement it. Civilians used one of the unfinished and abandoned Ukrainian trenches to bury their neighbors, unable to dig the frozen ground. At the end of the message there are two small homemade crosses, which you will not immediately notice.
There are also prepared firing points. We see one of them at the critical infrastructure facility of the city, which the Ukrainian militants also used for defense. There are loopholes for snipers and machine gunners in the walls, trenches along the concrete fence, and an automatic grenade launcher position between the buildings.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
It becomes clear that the fighters of the VFU did not try to save the city and its inhabitants, regardless of the outcome of the battles. And, of course, no one was engaged in the evacuation of civilians. On the contrary, according to residents, the Ukrainian military did not allow them to evacuate, leaving them as a human shield. Only after the liberation of the city, the assault detachments of the Wagner PMCs were able to help the residents and evacuate them to safe areas in just a few days.
— We tried to give them the maximum of warm clothes, blankets, food, water... Yes, people were waiting for us, and they waited. And I think those who are still waiting for us [in the occupied territory]... I don't think, but I am sure: they will wait for us and we will come," one of the Wagner employees finishes a story about what happened to residents in the Soledar quarters while we walk through the central streets of the city.
Salt of War
Now the fighting on the streets of the city is completely over. But Soledar has a unique system of underground salt workings, where operating mines are connected with closed and even with underground sanatoriums in which breathing problems were treated. Retreating from the city, the VFU blew up the entrances to the mines, but, of course, not all of them. On the way, we see how the assault groups are moving to clean up underground complexes, where they may have to face the enemy in the darkness of tunnels at a depth of 300 m. On the surface, the fighting has already moved beyond the city limits, the work of artillery and heavy machine gun bursts can be heard.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Among the trophies, ammunition and weapons of Soviet designs are increasingly rare. And even they are mostly imported now. We meet Bulgarian cartridges for Soviet machine guns and shots for grenade launchers. On some of them there are no manufacturer's markings on the case, only a small icon on the fuse. These grenades were imported into the country even before the SVO, when, after a series of scandals with illegal arms supplies, they were given out as manufactured directly in Ukraine.
But the automatic grenade launcher and several boxes of grenades to it are American. They were delivered to Ukraine shortly before the SVO, allegedly as part of a set of patrol boats, and not for use in the Donbass. Boxes for NATO single machine guns are mixed up. Some of the new ones are new, judging by the markings — European production. Next to them is a box with cardboard packages of tapes from the Vietnam War. This is already a gift to Kiev from the USA. Even 120-mm mortar mines and those arrived from overseas.
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| Ammunition found in Soledar. |
| Source: IZVESTIA/ Dmitry Astrakhan |
Judging by all this motley international, Soviet stocks and ammunition of its own production in Ukraine are coming to an end. A significant role in this was played by successful Russian strikes on warehouses and infrastructure of the military-industrial complex.
The liberation of Soledar and the further advance of the attack aircraft of the Wagner PMCs significantly complicate the situation of the Artem group of the enemy, the myth of the invincibility of which Ukrainian politicians and propagandists have been creating for several months. Western arms suppliers demanded, if not victories, then at least the absence of defeats.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
It is worth noting that if the Ukrainian militants had begun to withdraw from the city, and not stayed in it until the end for the sake of political interests and "pictures" for the Ukrainian media, they could have successfully gained a foothold on other frontiers, align the front and prepare for defense. But hundreds of Ukrainian militants, the exact number of which has yet to be determined, were exchanged by the Ukrainian government for political dividends.
Dmitry Astrakhan
