The Ministry of Defense stopped talking about soledar

In the daily briefing of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the representative of the department Igor Konashenkov did not say anything about the attack on Bakhmut and Soledar. On the eve of Evgeny Prigozhin and the telegram channels associated with him reported the capture of Soledar under control.

Details. Konashenkov said that “in the Donetsk direction the successful offensive operations of the Russian troops continued,” but did not specify what the successes were and where they achieved.

• Judging by the map shown during the briefing, soledar is not under the full control of the Russian army.

• The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov on Thursday morning said that in Soledar “giant work has been done”, but “there is still a lot of work ahead”.

Context. For the first time, Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the PMC Vagner, reported on Tuesday evening about the capture of Soledar. On Wednesday evening, through his press service, he already announced the "complete release and cleansing of the territory of Soledar."

• Even on Wednesday afternoon, the Ministry of Defense de facto disputed Prigozhin’s statement, reporting in the daily report that the soledar was blocked and battles were ongoing for it.
• The Ukrainian military also denied the loss of Soledar. In the evening summary of the Armed Forces, it was said that Russian troops "are trying to take control of the city", but they suffer heavy losses, and the battles continue.
• He stopped reporting the capture of Soledar and Prigozhin. The last message in the telegram channel of his press service was published on Wednesday evening.