Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed to have taken control of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine - a stepping stone in Moscow's push to capture the entire Donbas region - but fighting appeared to be continuing
The contract militia said on Tuesday night that fighting was still going on in the town centre and the Kyiv government said its troops were still holding out.
A victory in Soledar would have symbolic, military and commercial value for Russia after a series of battlefield setbacks in recent months, but its fate was not entirely clear on Wednesday morning. A photograph posted on Wagner's Telegram channel appeared to show Prigozhin and his mercenaries inside a salt mine in Soledar.His comment that fighting continued in the centre indicated that Russian control was incomplete despite his statement that all of the town was in Wagner's hands.
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