January 13, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Ukraine news here or read through the updates below. 

Additional aid from the United States and other allied countries is critical for the Ukrainian military which is engaged in “very difficult” fighting, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova said Friday.

“Every day is an opportunity to be a turning point and this capability is that we really need now — from the battle tanks to armored vehicles to more air defense, to more firepower to longer-range missiles — all of that could make the turning point closer,” she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

The administration announced a new $2.85 billion drawdown for Ukraine last week, part of more than $3 billion in new military assistance to Ukraine. The drawdown will include “Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, artillery systems, armored personnel carriers, surface-to-air missiles, ammunition, and other items to support Ukraine as it bravely defends its people, its sovereignty, and its territorial integrity,” according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Markarova said Ukraine has already shown that it is “capable of liberating the territories” with fewer resources. But that the new assistance will lead to more advances on the battlefield.

“We have very high trust in our capable armed forces – and our defenders already have shown that they are making the right decisions and they are doing pretty much everything at the right time,” Markarova said of the ongoing fighting in places like Soledar and Bakhmut, which she described as “difficult.”

She added there is “no doubt in our mind that in just a matter of time when we will win, regardless of how it might look from one day to another.”

Some background: Russia claimed Friday its forces had taken the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv denied the claims.

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New video from the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar shows a massive explosion at a building that appears to have been a shelter for Russian troops.

The video shows between a dozen and 20 soldiers walking along a railroad track before turning along a street on the northern outskirts of the town. 

After they reach a building with a distinctive green roof, the explosion destroys the building, with debris flying upwards.

The video has been geolocated by CNN. A longer version of the video has been posted by a Ukrainian soldier in the area. The soldier, with the codename Madiar, is a commander in a Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance unit.

He provides a commentary over the video, saying, “There are 10 of them. There are 10 more here. And all of them obviously going in the same direction. They are settling in. In groups of 20+ people. In the houses. On the outskirts of Soledar.”

“In the morning we’ve been watching this place,” he says. “There was some kind of activity there. Something was being loaded and unloaded.”

He describes the building with the green roof as “some kind of a headquarters for them.”

Madiar says there should be at least 25 Russian soldiers there.

He then asks: “What should we do? HIMARS or MLRS?” before the explosion is seen. 

HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is a lighter wheeled artillery system capable of firing many of the same types of ammunition as MLRS, which stands for a Multiple Launch Rocket System.

HIMARS artillery provided by the United States has proved an accurate and powerful weapon for Ukrainian forces.

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Members of Ukraine’s 46th Air Assault Brigade on Friday said they were “hanging on” in Soledar, the town in Donetsk that has been under relentless Russian attack for weeks.

“We’re hanging on,” a post on the 46th Brigade’s Telegram channel said. “But we are being surrounded. Heavy fighting continues inside the city.” The post continued: “Apparently, the orcs [Russians] were able to cut off those who were near the railway station and Mine 7 and are making efforts to consolidate the encirclement.”

A Ukrainian solder in the vicinity of Soledar told CNN Friday that he believed he and his comrades had been left to surrender.

“It’s easier to leave us to surrender than to put effort into a breakthrough,” the soldier, whom CNN is not naming for security reasons, said on the phone. “It means more casualties … Our units are being systematically pushed to the city center [by Russian forces] and split from each other.”

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed earlier Friday to have conquered Soledar, which had a pre-war population of just under 10,000. 

The soldier in Soledar told CNN he expected a repeat of Russia’s conquest of Mariupol early in the war, when a group of soldiers held out in the city’s steel works.

“The same happened in Mariupol,” the soldier told CNN. “I’m 100% sure it will be like this with us. We will be left here, the Orcs [Russians] will take captive whom they can. Then we might be exchanged.”
“We will not be able to hide for long,” he said. “We are now in basements and houses. Shooting and firefights are everywhere. Even at night.”
“The Russians conduct the cleansing sweep of those they surrounded in the northwest,” of the town, he said.

The soldier added a recent Ukrainian reinforcement unit had approached the town without any equipment and had immediately come under fire.  

The exact situation in the town is difficult to ascertain. The same brigade, on Facebook, said that fighting was ongoing only “on the outskirts” of the town and spoke about the battle in the past tense.

 “The fighting in Soledar was fierce and ruthless,” it said on Facebook.

The brigade said Russian forces focused on seizing Soledar only for a propaganda victory once they realized a months-long assault on Bakhmut would fail. 

“It took almost six months for the Russian occupiers to realize the inefficiency and futility of their attempts to storm Bakhmut. Therefore, since the beginning of the year they have shifted their combat activity to Soledar to divert media attention from the failures in the Bakhmut direction,” the Facebook statement read.  “Our brigade withstood these extremely difficult challenges with dignity.”
“Fighting on the outskirts of Soledar continues,” the statement read, a message echoed by the Ukrainian military’s General Staff. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that it’s a sign of failure for Moscow that there is Russian infighting about who deserved the most credit for “tactical advancement” in the town of Soledar.

“324 days of full-scale war, and how everything has changed for Russia,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Friday. “They are already at each other’s throats over who to attribute some tactical advancement to.”

“This is a clear signal of failure for the enemy. And this is another incentive for all of us to put more pressure on the occupier and to inflict greater losses on the enemy,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday claimed that it had captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar. The Ukrainian military said that battles for the town were ongoing.

“The difficult battle for Donetsk region continues,” Zelensky said. “The battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages of the east of our country continues.”

“Although the enemy has concentrated its greatest forces in this direction, our warriors – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defense and security forces – are defending the state,” he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry is crediting the private military company Wagner for spearheading the “direct assault” on Soledar after days of squabbles. While Russia said it is in control of the city in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv say fighting is ongoing.

An international team of nuclear safety experts will travel to Ukraine next week to establish a presence at all of the country’s nuclear power plants.

Catch up on the latest developments in the war: 

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will travel to Ukraine next week to set up a constant presence of safety experts at all of the country’s nuclear power plants.

“Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi will be in Ukraine next week to establish a continuous presence of nuclear safety and security experts at all the country’s nuclear power facilities, significantly stepping up the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help prevent a nuclear accident during the current military conflict,” according to the statement from the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

While the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant already has IAEA team members on location, experts will also be stationed at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant in western Ukraine in “the coming days.” The IAEA said Grossi will travel to the South Ukraine and Rivne nuclear power plants — as well as to the Chernobyl site — to set up the missions of two IAEA members at each site.

Grossi will also meet with senior Ukrainian government officials in Kyiv to discuss setting up a repeatedly called-for nuclear safety and security protection zone around Zaporizhzhia.

“I remain determined to make the much-needed protection zone a reality as soon as possible. My consultations with Ukraine and Russia are making progress, albeit not as fast as they should. I remain hopeful that we will be able to agree and implement the zone soon,” Grossi said.

According to the statement, the Zaporizhzhia plant’s last remaining 330 kilovolt backup power line has been reconnected to the plant, after experiencing disconnections in the last week.

Grossi also “reiterated his serious concerns about the pressure that ZNPP staff are facing, with potential consequences for nuclear safety and security,” according to the statement.

“The reduced ZNPP staffing levels combined with psychological stress due to the on-going military conflict and the absence of family members who fled the area have created an unprecedented situation that no NPP staff should have to endure,” he said.

Various units of the Ukrainian military on Friday insisted that the battle for the eastern town of Soledar is ongoing, refuting claims of capture by the Russian Ministry of Defense and Wagner private military company.

“Local battles continue in the city,” the 46th Airmobile Brigade said on Telegram Friday. “Orcs [Russians] are pressing from the outskirts to the center.”

Ukraine’s General Staff on Friday posted a video from a soldier purportedly participating in the battle for Soledar, claiming that “fierce fighting” in the town was still ongoing as of 2:13pm local time Friday (7:13 a.m. ET).

“Right at this moment the fierce fighting is ongoing. Today is Friday, the 13th, what time is it? 14:13. We are right above the Soledar city center, here have a look,” the man, who uses the call-sign Madiar, says in the video, showing a video feed on a laptop. “You see the church? We see all the movements.”

Troops from the Armed Forces of Ukraine “are holding a dense and solid defense line,” he says. “Yes, the assault units of Wagner attack non-stop, because apparently this is a defining showcase for them, when they have to show some results to their employer. But we don’t give a [expletive] about their plans. We are doing our job. We do it well. And we’ll do it till the end. Until at least one single warrior is still holding one building in Soledar.”

“Please be patient,” he says, “And we will do our job with honor,” he added.

This post has been updated.

Two days after citing only regular Russian forces for the attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar, the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday credited private military company Wagner for spearheading the “direct assault.”

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the defense ministry said that “offensive operations” were carried out by a “heterogeneous grouping of Russian troops according to a single plan” and that Wagner led the “direct assault.”

Some background on the back-and-forth: The Russian forces that were most responsible for the Soledar assault has become the subject of considerable controversy in recent days.

A defense ministry statement on Wednesday did not mention Wagner, saying that “Airborne Troops have blocked Soledar from the northern and southern parts of the city.”

Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, released a statement on Monday claiming that “Soledar was taken exclusively by Wagner PMC units.” On Thursday, a Wagner Telegram channel released a video purporting to show members of the Russian Airborne Forces, saying that they did not participate in the Soledar fight and that “the assault on the city of Soledar was carried out only by the forces of PMC Wagner.”

Sergey Markov, a pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger, opined on Telegram on Friday that the “public feud and semi-insults between the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and PMC Wagner” was damaging Russia and “must be stopped immediately.”

The defense ministry statement on Friday appeared to be an attempt at a détente.

“Offensive operations in this tactical direction, which ended with the defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the capture of the city of Soledar, were carried out by a heterogeneous grouping of Russian troops according to a single plan, which provided for the solution of a complex of combat missions,” according to the statement.

“As for the direct assault on the city blocks of Soledar occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, this combat mission was successfully solved by the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner assault squads,” it added. 

On the Ukrainian side, a top Ukrainian official on Friday characterized infighting among different factions of the Russian power establishment as a “sign of the beginning of the stunning end.” Officials have also denied the Russian claim that Moscow’s forces have taken over Soledar.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Friday, emphasizing that the US would continue providing economic and security support for Kyiv, according to a State Department readout.

Blinken told the foreign leader that assistance would persist “in the run-up to, and beyond, the first anniversary in February of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the readout said.

“The Secretary emphasized the United States’ enduring and unflinching support for Ukraine, as underscored by recent provisions of advanced air defense equipment and armored vehicles from U.S. stocks,” according to the readout.

Kuleba shared a message of thanks on Twitter after the call, saying he was grateful to the US for standing with Ukraine. The foreign minister said he emphasized the need for “Western-type tanks” in future aid packages.

The leaders’ call comes as Russia claims to have captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar. Kyiv denies the claim.

This post has been updated.

The European Union needs to continue increasing pressure on Russia and supporting Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

“We need to keep increasing the pressure on Russia and we will continue, of course, our unwavering support for Ukraine,” she said in a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Kiruna, Sweden.

“It is now 10 months since the start of the atrocious Russian war against Ukraine. The Ukrainians are fighting with the same ardor as on day one, and we are supporting them as firmly as on day one and as long as it takes,” she said. 

At the start of Sweden’s six-month presidency of the European Union, von der Leyen said that while Russia had cut 80% of gas supplies to the EU since the start of conflict in Ukraine, the EU had compensated by diversifying.

“Without any question, before the war, we were too dependent on Russian fossil fuels. And Russia has exploited this dependency and weaponized energy,” she said.

“Russia tried to blackmail us, but failed thanks to our unity,” she added.

“This hard work paid off. Gas prices today are now lower than they were before Russia’s invasion,” von der Leyen said.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted a thinly veiled retort toward the Russian Defense Ministry about the claimed capture of Soledar.

His remarks highlight, once again, the rift between Prigozhin and the defense ministry.

In a post on Telegram, the head of the Russian mercenary group said that while the United States is “a serious adversary, at the moment it is not a key one” — instead, the Russian Defense Ministry is.

Prigozhin added that “significant damage to PMC Wagner can be caused by our intraspecific struggle, corruption, bureaucracy and officials who want to stay in their places. This is a more serious threat to PMC Wagner.” 

A Ukrainian official denied Russia had taken the town, saying fighting was ongoing. A Ukrainian soldier stationed in the eastern city of Bakhmut told CNN that Ukrainian units are still at the edges of Soledar.

Some background: CNN has previously reported about the rift that has opened up between Prigozhin — dubbed “Putin’s chef” — and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

In a series of recent videos, Prigozhin said, “once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO … The problem now is that the bureaucrats and those engaging in corruption won’t listen to us now because for New Year’s they are all drinking champagne.”

In his Friday Telegram post, Prigozhin said that “they constantly steal victory from Wagner PMC and talk about the presence of someone who is not clear, just to belittle their merits.” This appears to be another dig at the lack of acknowledgement of the fighting Wagner units have been doing around and in Soledar.

On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced that Russia had taken the town, but did not mention the work of Wagner units in the town. In recent days, Prigozhin has gone out of his way to make it clear that Wagner are “exclusively” fighting in the city. 

What Ukraine says: A top Ukrainian official on Friday characterized infighting among different factions of the Russian power establishment as a “sign of the beginning of the stunning end.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, said on Twitter that the “public rumble” among the Russian Defense Ministry, Progozhin and General Sergei Surovikin “about who is fighting better on the 11th month of the 3-day war & who will sow Soledar with their corpses the most.”

“A good sign of the beginning of the stunning end!” he said.

Surovikin was replaced as head of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine on Wednesday.

CNN’s Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated.

A Ukrainian soldier stationed in the eastern city of Bakhmut has told CNN that Ukrainian units are still at the edges of the nearby town of Soledar, which has been under intense attack by Russian forces for several weeks.

Taras Berezovets, a captain in the Ukrainian Special Forces First Brigade, said remaining in Soledar made no military sense, because it was “completely destroyed.” He said he believed a decision to withdraw may be made in the coming days but said it would be up to the General Staff to make any such decision. He added that morale among frontline units was high.

Berezovets said units see their mission as holding on as long as possible and killing as many Wagner fighters as possible.

Wagner fighters, who are part of a mercenary group and not the regular Russian armed forces, have been prominent in the ground assault against Soledar. He said much of the fighting over the last two weeks had involved street fighting in Soledar between small units of four to eight fighters.  

Withdrawing from Soledar would not affect the ability of Ukrainian forces to resupply Bakhmut, which is a few kilometers to the southwest, Berezovets believed, adding that two major roads into Bakhmut remained firmly in Ukrainian hands, and Ukrainian fighter jets had been attacking Russian positions near Bakhmut during Friday. 

This post has been updated with additional context.

Russia said Friday its forces had captured Soledar, a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine, in what would represent a symbolic if not strategic victory for Moscow after months of setbacks on the battlefield. However, Kyiv refuted the claim.

Taking Soledar would also represent a symbolic PR win for the man who runs Wagner – oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has frequently criticized the Russian Defense Ministry’s management of the “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

Where is Soledar: The small lies at the center of the Donbas region, the vast expanse of eastern Ukraine whose capture Russia has prized above all other regions since last summer. Indeed, Moscow regards it as Russian territory since claiming (illegally) that it had annexed all of Donetsk region – including the approximately 40% that lies outside Russian control.

It is just a few miles northeast of the larger city of Bakhmut, which has become perhaps the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300-kilometer (800 mile) front line in Ukraine and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Why has Soledar been a target? With a pre-war population of about 10,000, it has little strategic value in itself, but is a waypoint in the Russians’ attritional slog westwards. Moscow has struggled for months to attack Bakhmut from the east, but were it to capture Soledar, Moscow would at least be able to approach the city from a different path.

An eye on salt mines: The area around Soledar includes large salt mines, which belong to state enterprise Artemsil, the biggest producer of salt in Europe, which halted production shortly after Russia’s invasion last February. The area surrounding the town hosts “extensive reserves of very pure salt that have only been exploited on an industrial scale since 1881,” according to the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Some have speculated that the Russians – and Wagner’s leader Prigozhin – have eyed Soledar for its huge resources of gypsum. Prigozhin has used Wagner in Africa and Syria as a mercenary force to leverage access to resources including diamonds and oil.

But exploiting Soledar’s famed salt mines would require heavy investment and a more tranquil environment than at present. Prigozhin has said the vast network of tunnels created by the mining offers “unique and historic defenses,” and a “network of underground cities.”

A win for Russia after a long time: The Russian armed forces have had nothing to celebrate since the beginning of July, and have had to retreat in both Kharkiv to the north and Kherson in southern Ukraine. The capture of Soledar, despite its now-ruined state, would therefore be rare progress. But it would be symbolic rather than substantive.

CNN’s Seb Shukla contributed reporting to this post.

Russian forces evacuated about 100 people from Soledar to Shakhtyorsk in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Shatov, the head of Russia-backed Shakhtyorsk administration, said Friday.

“Today, there are 249 people in three temporary accommodation centers in the city of Shakhtyorsk and the Shakhtyorsk district. About 120 people who live here are from previously liberated settlements, and yesterday another 100 people arrived from the city of Soledar,” said Shatov in a comment to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

People are provided with food and personal hygiene products, according to Shatov. “It is expected that about 110 more people will arrive today [Friday.]”

Remember: On Friday, the Russian defense ministry has said that it has captured the contested town of Soledar in Eastern Ukraine on the evening of Jan. 12. Ukraine refuted this claim.

Russia’s ministry of defense has claimed that its forces have taken the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, in what would be their first battlefield victory in months. Ukraine has denied the claim.

Elsewhere, France has promised to deliver AMX 10-RC light battle tanks to Kyiv within two months, as pressure grows on other Western countries to provide tanks to Ukraine.

Here are the latest headlines:

This post has been updated.

Neither Poland nor Finland have submitted an official request to re-export their German-made Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, a German government spokeswoman said Friday, as pressure mounts on Berlin to provide the tanks to Kyiv and to authorize other countries to do the same.

On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda pledged to send some of the country’s Leopard tanks to Ukraine during a meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

And on Thursday, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said his country could send a limited number of the tanks to Ukraine if a group of nations decides to do so, reports Reuters.

Thirteen European countries are in possession of German Leopard 2 tanks, which were introduced in 1979 and have been upgraded several times since, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. Any re-export of the tank by these countries would typically need approval from the German government.

“There is no question to which we would have to say no. But we’re saying right now that we are in a constant exchange about what is the right thing to do at this point in time and how we best support Ukraine,” German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann told reporters at a regular news conference in Berlin on Friday.

Germany is ”in a very close exchange with the United States, France and Great Britain – but also with Poland and Spain,” about ongoing military assistance for Ukraine, added Hoffmann.

And the government said it was not concerned about reports that Poland is planning to deliver Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine without its permission, which would be in violation of re-export rules.

“That’s not something that we’re concerned about or that we fear,” she said. “I don’t think that’s a realistic assumption.”

Moscow’s claims that its forces have taken the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine are “not true,” according to a Ukrainian official.

Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Ukrainian outlet RBC-Ukraine that “fighting is going on in the city.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Friday that its forces had taken the town, in what would represent a symbolic if not strategic victory for Moscow.

Capturing Soledar would allow Russian forces, and especially the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

A CNN team just outside of Soledar reported ongoing mortar and rocket fire on Friday afternoon after Russia claimed control of the eastern Ukrainian town.

Some background: Russia claimed on Friday to have taken Soledar in what would represent a symbolic if not overly strategic victory for Moscow, but a Ukrainian official denied Moscow’s assertion, saying fighting was ongoing.

This post has been updated throughout.

Russian forces have taken the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s defense ministry – their first significant victory in months. 

Russia took control of Soledar on Thursday evening, the ministry said in a briefing on Friday.

In recent days there have been competing claims over who has control of the town amid fierce fighting.

Russia said the capture of Soledar was “important for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk region.” It added that “establishing control over Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes for Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut.”

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal. However, its capture would allow Russian forces, and especially the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

According to the Russian ministry, the capture of Soledar “became possible due to the constant destruction of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of a group of Russian forces.”

The ministry made no reference to claims from private military company Wagner that its forces had taken the city by themselves. 

“Over the past three days alone, more than seven hundred Ukrainian servicemen and over three hundred units of weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been destroyed near the city of Soledar,” it said.

Some context: On Thursday, the Wagner group disparaged claims from the Russian ministry of defense that its forces were involved in the Soledar offensive.

For their part, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly contested claims that Soledar has been taken. On Friday morning, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that fighting overnight had been “hot.”

Ukrainian troops were “bravely trying to hold the line” despite Russian claims that it had gained control of the region, she added.

Belarusian artillery units that are part of a joint military grouping with Russia are being put on alert as part of combat coordination activities in Belarus, according to the country’s ministry of defense.

“Today, within the framework of joint activities of combat coordination of the regional grouping of troops of Belarus and Russia, the artillery units of the 11th separate mechanized brigade are being prepared to carry out tasks as intended,” reads a statement from the ministry.

In October last year, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced the establishment of a joint grouping of troops with Russia due to “the aggravation of the situation on the borders of Belarus.”

And the joint grouping continues to grow in size, the defense ministry said this week.

“As part of ensuring the military security of the Union State, the build-up of the regional grouping of troops (forces) of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation continues,” said the ministry in a statement.

The ministry also announced joint air force exercises between the two countries. 

Last month, Ukraine warned it does “not rule out” a “deliberate provocation” from Russia after Belarus said that the wreckage of a Ukrainian missile landed on its territory. 

France is aiming to deliver AMX 10-RC tanks to Ukraine within two months, French armed forces minister Sébastien Lecornu said in a statement Friday. 

It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed France would send the light-combat tanks in a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on January 4.

Lecornu “reaffirmed France’s unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression,” in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov on Thursday, according to the statement. 

The ministers “also agreed on the rapid organization of training for Ukrainian soldiers” on the use of the French-made tanks, the statement said. 

Poland has also promised to deliver Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, although typically any shipment would require approval from Germany as the tanks are manufactured in the country.

A delivery of either Leopard or AMX 10-RC tanks will mark the first time Western-designed tanks will be provided to Ukrainian forces. 

Wagner, the Russian private military company, posted a video on Telegram Thursday evening directly disparaging the Russian defense ministry’s claim that regular Russian military forces have participated in the assault on Soledar.

A day after Russia’s defense ministry reshuffled the command of its so-called “special military operation,” Wagner’s post doubled down on the assertion by boss Yevgeny Prigozhin that his forces alone are responsible for the Soledar operation, directly contradicting the ministry.

The video shows two men, faces obscured, wearing fatigues and standing in what looks to be an underground bunker, illuminated by flashlight.

“We are officers of the Airborne Forces, we declare that the Airborne Forces did not take part in the assault on the city of Soledar,” one man says. “The assault on the city of Soledar was carried out only by the forces of PMC Wagner. We were not even sent in that direction.”

CNN is unable to verify the men’s identity or the veracity of their statement, but it is significant that Wagner posted it at all as competing claims over which Russian forces are responsible for the assault in eastern Ukraine has become a key point of contention in the machinations of Russia’s power structure.

Some context: On Wednesday Russia’s defense ministry said that regular Russian forces were operating in and around Soledar, without mentioning Wagner.

“Airborne Troops have blocked Soledar from the northern and southern parts of the city,” the ministry said on its official Telegram channel. “The Russian Aerospace Forces strike at enemy strongholds. Assault squads are fighting in the city.”

But Prigozhin called any claim that non-Wagner Russian forces have participated in the Soledar assault “fake information.”

“I would like to emphasize that Soledar was taken exclusively by Wagner PMC units,” he said in a statement published on a Wagner Telegram channel on Monday.

The Ukrainian military insisted Thursday that the town is still contested, and that its forces were even “conducting counterattacks” in the settlement.

Some pro-Kremlin Russian military bloggers have speculated that the Russian defense ministry’s announcement Wednesday of Valery Gerasimov as the commander of its “special military operation” was motivated in part by Wagner’s success.

In a visit to his forces near Bakhmut over New Year’s Eve, Prigozhin directly castigated Kremlin bureaucrats.

“This year we will win! But first we will conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption,” Prigozhin told his fighters in a video posted to Telegram.

“Once we conquer our internal bureaucracy and corruption, then we will conquer the Ukrainians and NATO, and then the whole world.”

“The problem now is that the bureaucrats and those engaging in corruption won’t listen to us because for New Year’s they are all drinking champagne.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday publicly berated his industry and trade minister for acting too slowly in completing orders for military and civilian aircraft.

“It is taking too long! Much too long,” Putin said a virtual meeting with ministers – his first of the year. “Do we not understand the circumstances we are in?”

Putin reprimanded industry and trade minister Denis Manturov for the lack of military and civilian aircraft contracts in 2023, and urged to speed up the process for companies to fulfil the orders.

Putin also demanded that the contracts should be completed within a month.

Manturov pushed back: “Actually, the defense ministry has confirmed this year’s figures for all enterprises. Moreover, as I have reported to you, Russian Helicopters enterprises have taken loans – we are primarily talking about helicopters – in order to sign contracts with their Tier Two, Three and Four suppliers. Therefore, we have all the plans drawn up for the current as well as the next year.”

After another exchange with Manturov, Putin said: “You say everything is ready to go, but there are no contracts. This is what I am telling you. Let’s discuss this after the meeting. There is no point in our splitting hairs at this point. I know no contracts have been signed with the enterprises, the directors told me so. What are you fooling around for?”

Manturov replied with: “We will try to do our best.”

Fighting raged overnight in the contested town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, a senior Kyiv official said.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hana Maliar said on Telegram that “the night in Soledar was hot, fighting continued.”

Russian forces have thrown “almost all main forces to the Donetsk direction and maintains high intensity of the offensive,” she added, referring to the eastern city.

Maliar also noted this was “a difficult state of the war” but Ukrainian troops were “bravely trying to hold the line” despite Russian claims that it has gained control of the region.

A British visa plan to attract investment was used by 10 Russian oligarchs placed under sanctions to get residency, according to a review from the UK Home Office on Thursday. 

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said a small minority who had used the visa route “were potentially at high risk of having obtained wealth through corruption or other illicit financial activity, and /or being engaged in serious and organized crime.”

Braverman said the 10 Russian oligarchs who used the visa scheme were sanctioned after the invasion of Ukraine.

The secretary made the disclosure in a statement Thursday at the end of a long-awaited review into the so-called “golden visa” scheme for high-net-worth individuals.

She also said that “the UK’s openness to global business carries risks that malign actors will take advantage of our systems to pursue corrupt and criminal ends. We must ensure that kleptocracies such as Russia are not able to act with impunity overseas.”

Braverman said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the UK has placed sanctions on 1,200 individuals and 120 entities linked to the Russian state and frozen $22 billion in Russian assets.

Some background: The Tier 1 Investor visa route, often referred to as “the golden visa,” was introduced in 2008 to encourage wealthy people outside the European Union to invest in the UK. It was shut down last year.

A review of the visa scheme was commissioned in 2018 by the then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd following the Salisbury poisonings. The nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter resulted in the death of a woman.

In response to the review, Braverman said “the Government is clear that any future visa route to facilitate investment-based migration must not offer entry solely on the basis of the applicant’s personal wealth.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address thanked the Ukrainian soldiers defending the eastern town of Soledar from a Russian assault.

“Especially today I would like to highlight the paratroopers of the 77th separate airmobile brigade, who along with the fighters of the 46th separate airmobile brigade in Soledar hold their positions and inflict significant losses on the enemy,” Zelensky said. “I thank you, guys!”

The Ukrainian military unit stationed in Soledar said Thursday that the situation in the contested eastern town is “critical.”

“The situation is critical. News coming soon,” the 46th Airmobile Brigade said on Telegram.

Fighting is still raging in Soledar, a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine, despite Russian claims that it has gained control of the region.

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal. However, its capture would allow Russian forces, and especially the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

CNN’s Rob Picheta, Tim Lister and Olga Voitovych contributed to this post.

Russia’s appointment of a new head of the invasion operation of Ukraine likely reflects “systemic challenges” for Russia, according to a US Defense Department spokesperson.

The announcement of Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, as overall commander of the campaign shows “some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a press briefing.

“We’ve talked about some of those things in terms of its logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale and the largely, large failure to obtain the strategic objectives that they’ve set for themselves,” Ryder said.

Ryder said the department will “continue to monitor” such Russian personnel shifts.

“I think that the world would rather see Russia focus on withdrawing from Ukraine and saving innocent lives versus spending time on numerous management reshuffles, and Russian soldiers and their families would probably like to see that too,” Ryder said.

A Ukrainian soldier in the contested eastern town of Soledar described a dire situation to CNN on Thursday evening, saying “we are just abandoned.”

CNN is not identifying the soldier for security reasons.

“We tried to withdraw ourselves, but the Orcs [Russians] are already there. If there is no order to withdraw today, we will most likely not have time to leave,” he told CNN over the phone. “We were told that we would be withdrawn. And now we аre just abandoned.”

He said the soldiers had run out of food, were running low on water, and some were wounded. He said they still had some ammunition.

“The last evacuation was three days ago. The order was to hold out to the very end. Judging by the sounds of the battle, our neighbors [other units] either withdrew or were ordered to withdraw. We were told to hold out,” he said.

“We hold on as long as we can. But anyone can get tired and hit the limit eventually. It is impossible to hold on just on a high morale for so long.”

Wagner, the Russian private military company, has claimed to have captured all of Soledar. A video posted to Telegram Thursday and geolocated by CNN shows Wagner forces on the northern edge of the town.

Ukraine’s 46th Airmobile Brigade claimed Thursday that it was “conducting counterattacks” in the town.

“After several days of pulling back, we’ve even made a small advance,” the unit said on Telegram. “The railway station is ours. The mine is ours. We are waiting for support. Soledar is Ukraine.”

Spain will receive 225 Ukrainian troops late on Thursday at an air force base near Madrid, including 20 who will get training on HAWK air defense systems to counter air attacks, Spain’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Spain is sending six of the HAWK air defense units to Ukraine. 

Most of the remaining troops, who are Ukrainian civilians without prior military experience, will get basic training, the ministry said. That will include training on treating people wounded in combat and on procedures against IEDs.

The training in Toledo, an hour south of Madrid, is a program designed to handle 400 Ukrainian troops rotating through every two months and is part of the European Union’s military assistance mission for Ukraine, the ministry said.

It is the second group of Ukrainians to come to Spain for training after 64 troops came in November and December, the statement added.

Spain’s Defense Minister will receive the 225 Ukrainians at Torrejón Air Base, according to the ministry. 

Other allies’ actions: Polish President Andrzej Duda announced a plan to send Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Lviv on Wednesday. 

And Ukrainian troops are set to begin training on the Patriot missile system in the United States as soon as next week, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday.

An American Navy veteran who has been detained in Russia for nearly a year was released from custody on Thursday, his family’s spokesperson told CNN, after months of negotiations spearheaded by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Taylor Dudley, 35, of Lansing, Michigan, was detained by Russian border patrol police in April 2022 after crossing from Poland into Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. He was in Poland attending a music festival, and it is not clear why he crossed the border.

Dudley’s detention — which the US government had not deemed as “wrongful,” or based on arbitrary and discriminatory motivations — had not been widely publicized before Thursday because his family wanted the negotiations for his release to remain private.

Read more here.