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Russian forces mopping up Soledar, its outskirts — special forces officer

According to Novikov, the rear units, but no longer the assault detachments, are involved in the mopping-up operation in settlements on the outskirts of Soledar, since "small inhabited localities are not serious fortifications"

DONETSK, January 11. /TASS/. Russian forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) are mopping up the city of Soledar along with its outskirts, Vladimir Novikov (codenamed Alabay), commander of the Troy volunteer special forces unit, told TASS, adding that it was too early to say how many Ukrainian soldiers may have been surrounded.

"A harsh mopping-up is underway in the city. They are taking as many prisoners as they can. Quite a large group, but its composition is still unclear, who was taken prisoner right in the town, and accordingly, who did not have time to escape and was encircled. It is still hard to say in detail, as it is impossible to understand in the urban environment how many you have in the encirclement. Ukrainian soldiers are holed up in basements and residential buildings, so we will be able to sort out the dead and those who surrendered only after the mopping-up is complete," he said.

Yan Gagin, a military and political expert from the DPR, previously reported that up to 500 Ukrainian service members may still be in Soledar, which has been taken over by Russian forces.

According to Novikov, the rear units, but no longer the assault detachments, are involved in the mopping-up operation in settlements on the outskirts of Soledar, since "small inhabited localities are not serious fortifications".

"As the dispersal posts of manpower, they [the small settlements] are naturally quite crowded with the enemy. The mopping-up is ongoing as a usual [operation] in the rear. The assault has already taken place, and then the units that are mopping up the rear are already working, but they are no longer assault units," Novikov said.

Earlier, Apty Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces unit and deputy commander of the 2nd Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces, reported that Russian forces had begun mopping up Soledar.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Soledar, which had been an arena of hostilities over the past days, was taken under control by combatants of the Wagner private military company and that there was a pocket in the city center where fighting was raging. On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported that Russian forces had blocked Soledar from the north and south and that fighting was going on in the city.

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