Washington on Thursday dismissed claims that Russian or Wagner mercenary group fighters have seized Soledar, a town of some 10,000 residents near the embattled city of Bakhmut, where a Russian advance could give Moscow incremental gains at heavy costs.

"We have been clear in our own assessments that fighting remains intense in the Donbas; it remains intense in the east where this battle is – has been waged. We expect that to continue," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a daily press briefing.

"The Russians are in a position to at least claim incremental gains, despite these heavy costs, is not something that we’ve heard from Russian forces in quite some time," Price said in response to TURAN's questions.

Washington expects that there will continue to be incremental gains and losses by both sides. "But any incremental Russian gain, even one that comes at such heavy cost in terms of casualties and personnel and equipment, will never be able to change this tide of war," as Price put it.

"No tactical advance will be able to shift the strategic failure that President Putin and his forces have encountered from the earliest days of this war, and a strategic failure that has only intensified with the effective counteroffensive that Russia – excuse me, that Ukraine has mounted," he said.

Asked by TURAN about whether the Wagner mercenary Group is increasingly becoming the face of the war, Price said, "the introduction of Wagner forces — even tens of thousands of Wagner forces — there is no doubt in our mind that these efforts will meet the same fate that other Russian efforts have met in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive."

"We are looking for every appropriate and relevant authority we can to hold accountable those actors and entities that are responsible for this brutal war on the Ukrainian people," he concluded.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.

Source - Turan.az

13 January 2023 / 12:25