Iran Press/ Europe News: Both sides have conceded heavy losses in the battle for the salt mining outpost, with Moscow desperate to sell any win back home and Ukraine determined to hold – and win back – ground.
The Russian defense ministry announced it had "completed the liberation" of Soledar late the previous day and that the victory would pave the way for more "successful offensive operations" in the Donetsk region.
In a separate statement, it praised the "courageous and selfless" of its forces for storming Solar.
Kyiv dismissed Russia's announcement and said "severe fighting" was ongoing in Soledar, an industrial town with a pre-war population of about 10,000 now reduced to rubble.
In Siversk, a town north of Soledar that could be next in line for the Russian advance, artillery echoed around the battered buildings dotted with a few remaining residents and Ukrainian military personnel braving light snow and freezing wind.
Capturing Soledar could improve the position of Russian forces as they push toward what has been their main target since October, the nearby transport crossroads of Bakhmut.
Ukraine's forces also have taken heavy losses in the battles of Soledar and Bakhmut and are calling on the country's allies to give it more weapons.
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