US State Department: no temporary successes of the Russians on the battlefield will be able to change the course of the war

A representative of the US State Department, Ned Price, said that no temporary successes achieved by Russia on the battlefield in Soledar could change the course of the war. According to him, the Russians are paying too high a price for such minimal advancement.

Responding to journalistsʼ requests to comment on the situation in Soledar, where fighting is still ongoing between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Russian army, Price emphasized that the main reason why the battle for Soledar made headlines in the worldʼs largest media was the unconfirmed claims of Kremlin representatives about the successful advance, which given at the cost of great human losses.

The State Department expects the battle for the city to continue and both sides to continue to suffer losses.

“No additional Russian successes, even those that have to be paid for with such great losses in personnel and equipment, will never be able to change the course of the war. No amount of tactical advancement can correct the strategic failure that President Putin has faced,” he said.

• The situation in Soledar of the Donetsk region remains extremely difficult, there are almost continuous battles. Soledar itself is a small (about 10,000 population according to data for February 2022) city 10 km northeast of Bakhmut. The state-owned enterprise Artemsil, the largest salt production company in Eastern and Central Europe, is located there. The plant stopped working in the spring, which caused a shortage of salt in Ukraine.