Everything positive, going according to plan in Ukraine: Putin

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that his country's special military operation was going positively, saying that its dynamics were optimistic and stressing that everything was going according to plan.

During an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel, Putin voiced his hope that Russian soldiers would once again please everyone with the results of their work.

"The dynamics are positive. Everything is developing within the plan of the Defense Ministry and the General Staff," Putin stressed.

"I hope that our fighters will please us more than once again with the results of their combat work," he added in response to questions from journalist Pavel Zarubin.

This comes after the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Friday that the town of Soledar was under control while assuring that this would block any possible routes to be taken by Ukrainian forces in Artemovsk - renamed as Bakhmut by Ukraine in 2016.

The MoD calculated that over the past three days, more than 700 Ukrainian troops were killed and 300 pieces of weaponry alongside a helicopter and three planes were destructed in Soledar. It was also reported that nine HIMARS, Olha, and Uragan rockets were also shot down. 

That also followed a Tuesday announcement by DPR head Denis Pushilin that fighters from Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, acquired full control of the town. "Units of the Wagner private military company have taken the entire territory of Soledar under their control. The city center has been surrounded, and urban warfare is underway." Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group, said on the military group's telegram account.

DPR lawmaker Vladislav Berdichevsky relayed to Sputnik on Thursday that Soledar's liberation means the liberation of the remainder of Donbass.

However, major areas in the DPR remain under severe shelling by US-manufactured weaponry and HIMARS rounds, with the intensity of fire increasing day by day. 

In Bakhmut, Russian forces continue to advance toward the densely populated areas of the city after they succeeded more than a month ago in tightening their siege on the Ukrainian forces present there, while they continue to bombard their positions with missiles and artillery.

Western media have been speaking about the Battle of Bakhmut for over a month now, in which Kiev's allies fear that Russian control over it will be key to the collapse of the entire front in the hands of the Russian forces during the harsh winter, while Russian sources confirm that the Ukrainian forces and mercenaries are suffering heavy losses in lives and equipment.

Bakhmut has been an important transport hub for supplying the Ukrainian troops in the Donbass during the Ukraine war. A US official confirmed during a press briefing last Wednesday that the Russian army has made "gradual progress in the city of Bakhmut," located on the western outskirts of the DPR region.

Russian forces proceed to advance toward the densely populated areas of the city after they succeeded more than a month ago in tightening their siege on the Ukrainian forces present there, and they continue to bombard their positions with missiles and artillery.

The Ukrainian forces suffer greatly from the difficulty of transferring personnel to the city, due to the harsh weather conditions on the one hand, and also because they were forced to withdraw reinforcements from the Zaporozhye and Svatove fronts, to reinforce the combat group in Bakhmut.

With this last option, Ukraine's forces would weaken their positions in other cities and be forced to sacrifice their capabilities in those directions and throw all their reserve forces in an attempt to block the Russian advance.

Moreover, in light of the advances Moscow is making, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed on Wednesday the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to oversee Moscow's military operation in Ukraine, marking the federation's latest shuffle in the military leadership.

Gerasimov has been under fire for the better part of a year due to the various setbacks Moscow has faced since February when it was expected that Russia would get through the campaign with minimal losses and in a short time, which were, to begin with, unrealistic expectations.

His predecessor, Sergey Surovikin, was only appointed to his post in October. Surovikin, also known as "General Armageddon" in Russia due to his renowned ruthlessness, was put in charge of the campaign after various counteroffensives that Kiev carried out, which saw Ukraine gain major ground.

Surovikin had served as Commander of the Forces of the South group operating in Ukraine. Before that, he served from March until October 2017, and from January until April 2019, as the Commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District and led Russian troops in Syria. He was also one of the leaders of the anti-terror operation in the second Chechen war from 1999 to 2009. 

Moscow underlined that the reshuffle was aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the military operation.

Moscow underlined that the reshuffle was aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the military operation.