Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claims it has taken control of the strategic town of Soledar in Ukraine after a fierce battle.
Kyiv, however, says that its forces are holding strong.
“Wagner units took control of the entire territory of Soledar,” the mercenary group's head Yevgeny Prigozhin said late on Tuesday, according to Russian news agencies.
Fighting is continuing in the town centre where Ukrainian forces are surrounded, he added.
The Putin ally also claimed that only Wagner fighters — who are not part of the Russian army — took part in “the storming”.
Control of the mining town in Donetsk would allow Moscow to advance on the nearby city of Bakhmut — where it has been fighting “house to house” to seize control.
Russia would also be able to make use of Soledar's extensive network of salt mine tunnels — the largest in Europe — to advance into Ukrainian-controlled territory.
On Tuesday, the UK's defence ministry said Russian forces and Wagner mercenaries had made tactical advances into Soledar and were most likely in control of the settlement.
However, Ukraine has maintained that its troops are holding on.
“Our fighters are bravely holding the defence,” said deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, who claimed the battlefield was “strewn” with Russian corpses.
Analysts on both sides of the conflict have said the situation on the ground remains fluid and fighting intense, with the Bakhmut area considered to be the most dangerous part of the country.
There is “almost no life left” in the Bakhmut and the Soledar region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, claiming Russia was intensifying its attacks and “scarring the land” with strikes.
“This is what madness looks like,” he said.
Two British volunteers are missing after departing for the embattled town, the UK Foreign Office said.
Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry left the city of Kramatorsk for Soledar on Friday and were reported missing on Saturday evening.
Mr Parry's family has said he had been helping evacuate elderly civilians from areas on the front line.
Source: The National
Image: Reuters
