According to the head of the OPU, Soledar is a place of street battles, where neither side controls the city.

The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, compared the battles between the Ukrainian army and the Russian occupiers for Soledar and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region to the “Verdun meat grinder”.

As the official noted in an interview with the French publication Le Monde, the situation in this direction is extremely difficult. He drew an analogy with the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

“The situation is difficult, even very difficult. This is the Battle of Verdun of the 21st century. The fighting has been going on for several months, but our soldiers manage to hold their positions,” he said.

According to Yermak, the occupiers are using criminals in the battles against the Armed Forces, who die on the battlefield before they even reach the actual front line: they act as an ordinary “human mass”. The Russians do not even take away the bodies of the dead, but simply throw them at the site of the battle.

The head of the VP stated that the Ukrainian side values ​​the lives of its soldiers much more, therefore the human losses in the ranks of the Armed Forces and the invaders are incomparable.

So far, neither side controls Soledar, street battles continue for the city, Yermak said in a comment to the newspaper.

“Soledar is a place of street battles, where neither side controls the city. The Russians are there, but they do not control the city. The situation is difficult, but our goal is to liberate our territories, to fully restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the official said.

What is a “Verdun meat grinder”

The Battle of Verdun went down in history with the catchphrase “Verdun Meat Grinder” in connection with the large number of human casualties, the exact number of which historians are still debating. Roughly, it is about 300 thousand killed. This is the longest battle of the First World War between the German and French armies, which took place in 1916. The fighting lasted for about 10 months.

The situation in Soledar – statements of Ukraine and the Russian Federation

It will be recalled that today the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced the alleged capture of Soledar. However, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine does not confirm this, noting that heavy fighting continues in the city.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar said that the night of January 13 was hot in Soledar, but the city is held by the armed forces of Ukraine.

Serhiy Chereviy, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, also stated that the Russian invaders did not capture Soledar of the Donetsk region – their statements are false.

According to the adviser of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych, he noted that the decision on whether the Ukrainian military will leave the city or not is not made by the Russian Federation, but by our country.