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The Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy say claims by Russia’s Vagner group that Russian forces have taken the eastern town of Soledar are false and fighting continues.
“The terrorist state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our town of Soledar…is some sort of a Russian possession,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on January 11.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his armed forces to observe a unilateral 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine this weekend for the Orthodox Christmas holiday, the first such sweeping truce move in the nearly 11-month-old war. Kyiv indicated it won’t follow suit.
Putin did not appear to make his cease-fire order conditional on Ukraine’s acceptance, and it wasn’t clear whether hostilities would actually halt on the 1,100-kilometer (684-mile) front line or elsewhere.
Ukraine has claimed that 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 others injured after Ukrainian armed forces struck a Russian military base in the Makiivka region of Donetsk, The Kyiv Independent reported citing the Strategic Communications Department of Ukraine’s military post on Telegram.
According to the Ukraine-based news publication The Kyiv Independent, Russian soldiers were stationed in a local school building. Ukrainian General Staff has not reported on the strike in Makiivka. However, in its daily update, Ukraine’s General Staff said that 760 Russian troops were killed on December 30.
Kyiv said on Friday it had repelled a night-time explosive drone attack launched by Russia less than 24 hours after massive bombing raids on energy infrastructure left millions of Ukrainians without electricity.
Since October and a series of military setbacks on the frontline, Russia has adopted the tactic of hitting Ukrainian power plants and transformers with missiles and drones, plunging the population into cold and darkness in the middle of winter.
The Russian losses in the invasion of Ukraine have exceeded 100,000 soldiers dead with about 660 dying just over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Thursday morning.
In total, Russia has lost 100,400 soldiers, 3,003 tanks, 5,981 armed vehicles, 1,978 artillery systems, 283 warplanes, and 267 helicopters, the tally reads.