Intense battles in Bakhmut and Soledar. No reasons to believe that Russians will stop – Pentagon

The US Department of Defence is monitoring the heavy fighting at Bakhmut and Soledar. The Pentagon believes there is no reason to think that Russia will "slow down", so it is necessary to provide Ukraine with everything necessary to hold the line.

Source: Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman at a briefing on 10 January; Pentagon website

Quote: "Well, I don't want to speculate. We definitely continue to see very intense fighting near Bakhmut and in the vicinity of Soledar. You know as you've seen it's been a lot of back and forth, particularly around the Soledar area. We'll continue to keep a close eye on it. But I don't want to speculate at this point what the outcome may be.

Our focus is going to continue to be on supporting Ukraine and providing them with the security assistance they need to defend their country.

And there's a couple things we do know. Russia has been very clear that – that it intends to continue to try to take and hold Ukrainian territory, as evidenced by their invasion. So we have no reason to believe that they're going to let up on the throttle when it comes to operations.

In the meantime Ukraine has also been very clear that it intends to defend and take back its territory. And that's where we're focused is making sure that they have what they need to defend their country and to take back their sovereign territory.

So that obviously has to take into account a variety of variables, situations that could happen and -- and when it comes to Russia we're going to continue to monitor, we're going to continue to work closely with the Ukrainians and the international community, again, to make sure they have what they need to counter that."

Background:

• Hanna Maliar, Deputy Defence Minister said that the Armed Forces kept holding the line in the city of Soledar, Donetsk Oblast; heavy fighting is underway. 
• CNN writes that the situation in Soledar is critical and dynamic, as buildings change hands every day, and the death toll is so huge "no one counts their dead". 
• Members of the Institute for the Study of War reported that Russian troops did not capture all of Soledar, but even if it was captured, the Bakhmut would not be encircled. 

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