MELITOPOL, January 11. /TASS/. The morale of the Ukrainian forces on the line of engagement in the Zaporozhye Region is sinking amid news of successful operations by Russian forces in Soledar, in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), where several hundred Ukrainian troops have been trapped, the leader the movement We are together with Russia, Vladimir Rogov, has told TASS.

"As far as the liberation of Soledar is concerned, there has been certain information, and it is being confirmed. The morale of Zelensky’s militants is sinking, to put it mildly. In the Zaporozhye Region, the news has hit the enemy emotionally. It is clear that everyone is following the news regardless of the media blackout. It is clear that now they will begin to be told that Soledar is irrelevant and that Bakhmut is not so important, too. It is enough to look at the change in what Zelensky, Yermak and Arestovich and his likes have been saying," Rogov said.

The liberation of the city is of great moral importance to the Russian forces, too.

"Soledar is relatively small, but it is very important as a symbol. We have not attacked for a long time and we have not liberated any communities, especially after the Kharkov events and after the Kherson events. Our men were feeling a certain emotional strain, while Zelensky’s militants, on the contrary, developed the delusion they were almost invincible. Today, although various modern types of weapons are supplied from the West and a certain quantitative advantage on the front line remains (not all of our mobilized are on the front line yet) they lose," Rogov noted.Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said last night that Soledar, where heavy fighting had been going on in recent days, was taken by the Wagner PMC fighters and that the remaining Ukrainian forces were trapped in the city center. In the afternoon, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that Russian troops had blocked Soledar from the north and the south and hostilities were continuing inside the city. An adviser to the acting head of the DPR, Yan Gagin, has said that an estimated 500 Ukrainian soldiers remain in Soledar.