The war in Ukraine – Russia:

TASS writes that the Pakhmutskoye settlement fell on Monday, January 9th.

– Since January 9, 2023, Pakhmutskoye has been liberated on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic by the Russian Armed Forces, they write on a telegram.

The information has not been confirmed by independent sources.

Dagbladet first wrote that the town of Bakhmut had been taken. What is true is that the settlement of Bakhmutskoye, near Bakhmut, should have fallen into the hands of the Russians.

An important step

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the situation is “extremely difficult” in the town of Solidar, near Bakhmut. They reported this on Sunday.

According to Lieutenant-Colonel and Head of School at the Norwegian Defense College, Geir Hagen Carlsen, this may indicate the downfall of Pakhmutskoy.

– but it’s very little and inconsequential progress. Even the city of Bakhmut will be a symbol in the first place. Bakhmutskoye is a very small and completely unrelated place.

He points out that the Russians used a lot of people and paid a heavy price in blood to take something of no value.

They made it big because they had such a strong need to succeed. Things have been going very badly for them lately, and now they are trying to pass on the good news. It fits perfectly with the propaganda war.

Pakhmutskoy is not very important in itself, but an important step on the path to Bakhmut, says Tom Rosth, senior lecturer in intelligence at the Norwegian Defense Academy.

– If they also manage to capture Solidar, they control the salt mines there, then they can access the resources and a very large underground facility. This, he says, also facilitates the intake of Bakhmut.

This is how they will finance the war

Furthermore, Rosth asserts that to say that something was taken before it actually happened has happened before.

– There is probably a lot of propaganda and information war. But we should not discount the fact that there is Russian progress in the region. If they take Pakhmutskoye, it’s an advance of little strategic importance — but it does show that there were fierce battles going on and that the Ukrainians had to concede some territory, he says.

Drowning in advertising

The Russians, and especially Wagner’s private military group, had become increasingly focused on the region over time, according to Roseth.

– On the American side, it was said that the Wagner Group would use the resources in the region to finance the war. But it is not certain that they will be allowed to use this, unless they secure more space. They will still be under fire from the Ukrainians.

– But the Russians have struggled to take new territories since last summer – at a very high cost, and so they made it big.

Desperate attempts

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Sunday that fierce fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, while Russian forces are making desperate attempts to seize any settlement.

– She said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces are defending and advancing little by little in the east as well.

He claims to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers

Lieutenant-General Arne Burd-Dalhough maintains that unexpected things always happen in war, and that you can never be sure of anything.

– But Ukraine has made progress in the area, and the think tank ISW recently reported that Ukrainian forces have recaptured areas around Bakhmut.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian forces in the east said, according to the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Independent, today, Saturday, that Ukraine still controls Solidar, despite Russian allegations to the contrary.

The village is located between the towns of Bakhmut and Solidar, where fierce fighting has been going on for a long time. On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the area between the two cities was one of the bloodiest places on the front, NTB wrote.