MELITOPOL, January 26. /TASS/. More than 10,000 Ukrainian servicemen who were redeployed from the Zaporozhye frontline to Donbass to ward off the advancing Russian forces near Soledar were killed during the battle for the city, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia movement, told TASS on Thursday.

"By early or mid-December, the Ukrainian army amassed 30,000 people on the Zaporozhye line of combat engagement," he noted.

According to the politician, the bulk of them were eliminated near Soledar and in the city itself. "More than 10,000 Ukrainian militants," he specified.

Earlier, Rogov reported on the redeployment of Ukrainian personnel from the Zaporozhye front to Soledar and Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine).

Soledar is about 100 kilometers north of Donetsk and until recently was part of the Ukrainian defense line stretching from Artyomovsk to Seversk. On January 12, Soledar was cleared of Ukrainian formations, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. According to Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, full control over this city makes it possible to cut off the supply routes for Ukrainian troops in Artyomovsk and subsequently block and encircle the units holed up there.