A man who introduced himself as a Russian officer spoke about the situation in Soledar in a stream with Ukrainian blogger Edgar Myrotvorets, an excerpt from the video was published on the Telegram channel. The Agency journalists found out that the video shows Russian security official Anton Bous from Saratov. There is no confirmation of the information that the man is really at war in Ukraine and is an officer.
The officer claims that he is now near Soledar. When asked by a blogger about whether the city has been taken, Bowes replies: “They took Soledar, but it’s all shit.” However, when the blogger later asks again if the Russian army took Soledar, he replies: “Fuck.” At the same time, the military sometimes speaks unintelligibly and looks drunk.
Bowes also said that during the strike of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on January 1 on the building of a vocational school in Makeyevka, where Russian mobilized people were stationed, “500 people were killed.” According to the security official, his mother is a colonel, and she "sent these people" to the war. According to the official data of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 89 people died in Makeyevka, most of them were mobilized from the Samara region.
The military man added that he studied in Saratov at the Dzerzhinsky Military School – probably, we are talking about the Saratov Military Institute of the National Guard Troops (until 1997 it was named after Felix Dzerzhinsky). On the pages of Bowes in social networks, it is indicated that he studied at this institute. According to data from the merged bases, in 2014 the man was a senior lieutenant in the Saratov drug control department. Lately he's been working as an engineer for civilian companies, The Agency speculates that Bowes may have been mobilized.
Among other things, in the conversation, Bowes claims that both in Russia and Ukraine are “Russians” and “baptized”, therefore the military does not want to “go against each other”, despite the orders received.
“I tell it like it is. Orders come, but we don't want to go at each other. Everything they show on TV is bullshit. Neither their special troops can go against us, nor ours (against them). I know there are mercenaries and so on. Basically, I don't fight. I do not apply the knowledge that was given to me at the Saratov military school named after Dzerzhinsky. I am the 29th detachment of the special forces of the Russian army, if I have an order, I can take this city within half an hour. At the moment, 161 people are subordinate, I am the captain.
At the same time, he also spoke about the Wagner PMC, saying that people without documents are recruited there, there are “jailers” and “meat”, and not heroes.
The Ukrainian command claims that Soledar has not yet been surrendered, the press attaché of the Eastern Group of Ukrainian Forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, said that the Russian Federation has concentrated forces in the Bakhmut direction, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding the line. Pro-Russian Telegram channels and military correspondents, in turn, spread messages about the capture of the station and the village of Sol on the western outskirts of Soledar by mercenaries from the PMC Wagner. Military expert Sergei Grabsky, in a conversation with The Insider, stated that almost the entire settlement is under the control of Russian fighters, but on the outskirts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine they still hold positions.
