Ukraine denies loss of Donetsk town as Poland and Britain boost its tank hopes

Ukraine denied Russian claims that it had lost control of the eastern town of Soledar, as Poland and Britain indicated they were now prepared to provide western-made tanks to Kyiv’s forces as part of a co-ordinated effort with other allies.

Russia put its chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov in charge of its “special military operation” on Wednesday, in a move it said reflected “the expansion of the scale of tasks to be completed” in Ukraine and the need to improve co-ordination between branches of the armed forces, command and control and other aspects of the Kremlin’s campaign.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said its fighters had “taken the entire territory of Soledar under their control. The city centre has been surrounded and street fighting is under way”.

The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, said “paratroopers have blocked Soledar from the town’s northern and southern parts”, and that air strikes were targeting Ukrainian positions and “assault groups are engaged in a battle in the town”.

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Kyiv denied that it had lost Soledar, where Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatiy said “the intensity of battles … can be compared with the second World War”.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said: “Heavy fighting continues in Soledar. After suffering losses, the enemy once again replaced its units, increased the number of Wagner fighters and tried to break through the defence of our troops and fully capture the city – but it is not unsuccessful”.

After being forced to retreat in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions in autumn and early winter, Russia has focused its attacks on Soledar and the nearby, larger town of Bakhmut in recent weeks, and says their capture will boost its bid to seize all of the Donetsk region.

Mr Prigozhin has also suggested that the Soledar-Bakhmut area’s vast subterranean network of mining tunnels and chambers could have military value, while the White House has said he is intent on seizing the local salt and gypsum resources.

Kyiv says Soledar and Bakhmut are mostly deserted and largely destroyed and would not provide much of a boost to Russia’s stumbling invasion, and it has praised forces defending the towns for inflicting heavy casualties on Moscow’s forces and for buying more time for Ukraine to acquire more military supplies from its allies.

Ukraine says it needs modern western-made tanks to drive out Russian forces, and Polish president Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that Warsaw was ready to supply Kyiv with German-made Leopard tanks as part of an “international coalition”.

“A company of Leopard tanks will be provided as part of the coalition,” he said. “It is necessary to obtain official consent [from Germany] and build an international coalition… The first Leopard group, together with other types of tanks, will hopefully be provided by other countries very soon to strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities.” A company would normally comprise about 14 tanks.

At a meeting with Mr Duda and Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country was “awaiting a joint decision” on tanks because “one country cannot provide us with a sufficient number of them”.

In London, meanwhile, a British government spokesman reportedly said that prime minister Rishi Sunak had asked his defence secretary Ben Wallace to “work with partners” in the weeks ahead to go “further and faster with our support for Ukraine including the provision of tanks”.

“We are accelerating our support to Ukraine with the kind of next-generation military technology that will help to win this war,” the Financial Times quoted the spokesman as saying. “It is clear that battle tanks could provide a game-changing capability to the Ukrainians.”