Officials in Kyiv have denied Russian claims that Ukrainian troops in the flashpoint town of Soledar have been surrounded by advancing Russian forces.
“The town [Soledar] is not under the control of the Russian Federation,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s Eastern Command, said in televised remarks on Jan. 11.
“There are fierce battles going on now,” Cherevatyi said, adding that the situation on the frontline was “complicated.”
The spokesman’s assertions, however, contrasted sharply with battlefield reports emanating from Moscow.
According to Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Russian airborne units have surrounded Soledar–from north and south–and have hemmed in Ukrainian troops that are still in the town….