The situation at the front
The fiercest battles are now going on in the Bakhmut direction . In the Soledar area, Russian troops are trying to completely cover the defense area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city by advancing in the direction of Krasnopolevka (from the north) and Krasnaya Gora – Paraskoveevka (from the south). According to military observer Konstantin Mashovets, Russia, with the help of artillery, managed to take control of the T-0513 road (Bakhmut-Seversk) at certain points (the villages of Blagodatnoye and Sakko and Vanzetti), which significantly complicates the supply of the garrison of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is conducting tough defensive battles in the very Soledare.
Wagner PMC forces probably already control most of Soledar, which is located 10 kilometers north of Bakhmut. According to the British Ministry of Defense, Russian forces have made great progress in the assault on Soledar over the past four days. The battles were fought for the entrances to the abandoned tunnels of salt mines with a total length of 200 kilometers.
The pro-Russian Telegram channel Brussels Svyaznoy published a video with Wagner PMC mercenaries in the center of Soledar. It is reported that the cameraman is shooting near school No. 14 next to the city administration building, where two days ago there were formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The mercenaries in the video are standing in full growth right on the street, which indirectly indicates the transition of the entire area under the control of Russian troops and the displacement of the battle zone to the northwest.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to hold the northwestern and western parts of the city.
According to Konstantin Mashovets, the overall situation in the Soledar area does not look as favorable for the RF Armed Forces as it seems. Along the Soledar, along the T-0513 road (Bakhmut – Seversk), there is a sufficiently prepared and powerful defense line of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the southeastern part of the city, where the Wagner PMC assault detachments have entered, is effectively shot through by means of destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, in the direction of the northwest, the level of the terrain is gradually rising, so the new advanced positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, both in Soledar itself and to the north and south of it, in fact, occupy a dominant position in relation to the terrain on which the Russians are trying to organize attacking assault actions. Even with the departure of the Ukrainian military from Soledar, Russian troops will not be able to ensure a complete blockade of Bakhmut from the north, Mashovets notes.
Armed Forces Colonel in reserve, military expert Roman Svitan confirmed to The Insider that the Armed Forces of Ukraine retain control over the situation, and the main task for Ukrainians is not to preserve territory, but to destroy enemy manpower.
Soledar itself rests from the north-west on three parallel lines – in particular, the railway from Bakhmut to Seversk, to the Bakhmutka River, which flows into the Seversky Donets in the Seversk region, and on the left there is a highway along the Bakhmutka River to Seversk. Soledar just adjoins the railway on the right. The main area is not Soledar itself, but these three locations: the railway, the highway and Bakhmutka, it is almost impossible to cross them.
Wagner PMCs surrounded Soledar from the south and southeast and began to "bite", and mostly the private sector, and the main buildings and everything else are in the northwest of Soledar. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have brought up artillery and are "rolling out" this private sector and the Wagner PMC. The Ukrainian military themselves therefore retreated and are holding on to the center.
The first task is not territory, but the destruction of enemy manpower. So far, there is no big problem – how they kept, and keep. They are shooting from all sides. The position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is better, because there are many mines where you can hide, and the Russians are creepy, because they are in a field with one-story houses.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner PMC, said on January 10 that “heavy bloody battles are taking place on the western outskirts of Soledar,” and the Ukrainian army is “fighting bravely.” The head of the self-proclaimed DPR, Denis Pushilin, in turn,said that Soledar "is very close to liberation", but "it comes at a very high price."
The Telegram channel of the Russian expert of the Center for Military-Political Journalism Boris Rozhin publishes a video of the shelling of a stronghold of the Ukrainian army in the Bakhmut area by the artillery of the PMC Wagner.
In turn, the Moscow calling Telegram channel publishes a video showing the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine in close combat clearing a trench near Bakhmut, in which Wagner PMC fighters are sitting. 18+
Units of the regular Russian army began to be sent to the Soledar region. According to The New York Times, citing a high-ranking representative of the Ukrainian army, who is familiar with the course of the fighting, this is how they close the gaps formed due to the heavy losses of the Wagner PMC.
British intelligence reported that despite certain successes of the RF Armed Forces and the Wagnerites in Soledar, fighting is still going on in the city, the general line of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Bakhmut and Soledar directions is stable and has depth. Thus, there is no talk of surrounding Bakhmut through Soledar in the near future.
Two British volunteers disappeared near Soledar. Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Perry left Kramatorsk on January 6, and contact with them was lost. Bagshaw is the son of famous doctors from New Zealand who moved to the UK. He brought medicine and food to Ukrainians in the front-line settlements. Perry last November gave an interview to the Sky News channel, in which he said that he was evacuating people from the territories recently liberated from Russian occupiers.
shelling
Russia launched a missile attack on Kramatorsk, which hit the roadway and a car. As a result, two people who were in the car died. This was announced by the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko, posting a photo.
In total, over the past day, Russia launched 8 missile strikes and 31 air strikes on the territory of Ukraine. Also, the Russian military carried out 63 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems. This is reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The civilian infrastructure of Kharkiv, Kherson and Ochakov in the Nikolaev region came under fire, among other things. According to Tymoshenko, in Kherson, a shell fell on a residential building, as a result, one person died.
CNN, referring to Ukrainian and American officials, reports that in the eleventh month of the war in Ukraine, the intensity of artillery shelling by the Russian army has significantly decreased, in some areas it has decreased by 75%. Interlocutors of the TV channel in the United States said that Russian forces are now firing about five thousand rounds a day, compared to the previous 20 thousand. According to Ukrainian sources, Russia fires 20,000 shells instead of the previous 60,000.
CNN sources do not undertake to judge what is the reason for the drop in the intensity of shelling. According to one version, the Russian army is saving shells due to their shortage, according to another, it is changing tactics against the backdrop of successful counter-offensives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In an interview with The Insider, Pavel Luzin, an expert on defense policy and the military-industrial complex, confirmed that there is a shortage of shells. He added that at the moment it is difficult to assess Russia's ability to increase the production of shells. Earlier, Luzin noted in an article for The Insider that the total annual rate of replenishment of Russia's artillery arsenals in the 2010s did not exceed 1.6-1.7 million shells of all types. And for six months of aggression against Ukraine, Russia should have used up at least 7 million shells.
Arms deliveries
The US is considering sending Stryker infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine to help Kyiv repel an expected Russian spring offensive. This is reported by Politico , citing sources. Last week, the Joe Biden administration announced it would supply Kyiv with 50 Bradley combat vehicles. Politico's interlocutors stressed that the final decision on the supply of Stryker has not yet been made.
Pakistan plans to transfer 159 containers of shells to Kyiv, including 155mm artillery ammunition. Vesuvius will carry 155mm shells, M4A2 propellant charges, M82 artillery primers and PDM fuses, sources told The Economic Times. They will be provided by Islamabad arms supplier DMI Associates in cooperation with defense firms in Eastern Europe. In return, Islamabad is counting on Kyiv's help in modernizing its Mi-17 helicopters and repairing T-80UD tanks.
Georgia refused to return the Buk systems transferred to Ukraine in 2008, arguing that these air defense systems had been bought out at one time. The position of official Tbilisi was voiced by Chargé d'Affaires of Ukraine in Georgia Andrey Kasyanov. This was reported by the publication "European truth". Also, the request of Ukraine included the Javelin anti-tank systems transferred by the United States to Georgia.
See also The Insider’s military report for January 9: “The Wagnerites go to Soledar over the corpses of their soldiers, heavy fighting in the Luhansk region. What's happening on the front lines ."