Donetsk-January 11, 2023

While the regional defense headquarters of the so-called"Donetsk People's Republic" announced today ،

On the control of another town in the Solidar region, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement in which it said: "Solidar is still surrounded from the North and South by units of the Russian Airborne Forces. The Russian Air Force carries out raids on enemy strongholds. The attacking forces are engaged in battles inside the city,"he said.

The regional defense headquarters said that Russian troops took control of the town of "podgorodnoye", a day after taking control of the city of Solidar.

"Starting from January 11, 2023, the Russian Armed Forces liberated podgorodnoye on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic,"the Donetsk regional defense headquarters said in a post on its official Telegram channel.

Solidar, located 15 kilometers from Bakhmut, is of strategic importance for Kiev, it is located in the center of the Bakhmut - Seversk defense line.

The acting president of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, spoke about an important turning point "during the operation to liberate the city of Solidar in Donetsk," according to the Russian news site Sputnik.

He also talked about another turning point, Pushilin said during a special interview on the Solovyov live channel: "a turning point occurred during the operation to liberate the city of soledar, where it caused a breach in the defenses of the Ukrainian army and the area became open to the Russian army, and we have the town of Marinka and the enemy is inside it," noting that this would lead to the "liberation of the entire territory of Donetsk.

The liberation of Solidar will allow to cut off the direct supply route between artyomovsk and Seversk, as well as to cover artyomovsk, the Russian name of Bakhmut, from the northern side.

The "Wagner" group had taken control of the town of soledar last night, according to the founder of the group Yevgeny Prigogine, who stated that his troops "Wagner" managed to besiege the Ukrainian troops in the center of the city.

Later, the Ukrainian military said that Solidar was "Ukrainian and will remain so".

The Center for Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on the Telegram website that the photo, which allegedly shows the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in the salt caves of the town of soledar, Donetsk region, was taken in another region.

The Center published a photo of the salt caves near volodymyryivka, in the Donetsk region, to prove what it says.

"It seems that Prigozhin's whereabouts do not correspond to reality, and he is not at the Solidar mines,"the center added.