LUGANSK, January 13. /TASS/. Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Ties with Compatriots, has told TASS that the liberation of the town of Soledar is a turning point of the special military operation.
"A turning point has happened in principle for the whole special military operation because after Soledar quite different military-tactical efforts are starting. It’s getting much easier to take Artyomovsk and other cities, Kramatorsk. Ammunition supply has been cut off [for Ukrainian forces], transportation routes have been cut off that were used to supply Western equipment, so Soledar played an important role," said the lawmaker, who is also a coordinator for parliamentary relations with the LPR’s People’s Council.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday said Russian troops had liberated Soledar in the evening of January 12 after days of battles.
The importance of taking Soledar is that it opens the way for direct artillery fire on the road between Slavyansk and Artyomovsk and striking targets on the Artyomovsk axis with artillery fire, according to Andrey Bayevsky, a lawmaker at the legislature of the Donetsk People’s Republic and a colonel of the People’s Militia. He described the capture of Soledar as an important step toward storming Artyomovsk.