Ukrainian police announced on Monday that they are looking for two British volunteers who have gone missing in eastern Ukraine, where fighting is raging between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Reuters and News.ro reported.

They are Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, aged 48 and 28.

The two left on Friday morning (January 6) from the city of Kramatorsk for the city of Soledar and were reported missing on Saturday evening after losing contact with them.

In the statement of the Ukrainian police, they do not provide details about their volunteer work, but note that the law enforcement officers are establishing their location.

“We support the families of two Britons who disappeared in Ukraine,” the British Foreign Ministry commented.

Kramatorsk is about 80 kilometers from Soledar, where, according to the Ukrainian military, the fighting is particularly intense.

“The enemy literally steps on the corpses of their own soldiers”

Russian troops are making a new attempt to advance in the direction of Soledar near Bakhmut, Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Malyar said on Monday, quoted by CNN.

“After the (previous) unsuccessful attempt to capture Soledar, the enemy retreated, regrouped, recovered losses, deployed additional assault units, changed tactics and launched a powerful assault,” Malyar clarified. “At this time, the enemy deployed a large number of strike groups, which consisted of the best fighters of the Wagner PPC. The enemy is literally stepping on the corpses of its own fighters, massively using artillery, multiple rocket launchers and mortars, covering even its own fighters with fire. Heavy fighting is going on now,” Malyar reported on Telegram.

On Monday morning, Ukrainian army spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty told Ukrainian television that Russia “managed to concentrate several units” around the town of Soledar and that it had deployed both “regular” troops and mercenaries from Wagner’s private group there. .

Wagner Group chairman Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday that one of the reasons he wants to take over Bakhmut and Soledar is to control the area’s system of salt mines, which he described as a “network of underground cities”.

The spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Cherevaty, said that the Ukrainian army is trying to evacuate civilians from Soledar, but not everyone wants to go.

“Soledar is actually destroyed. There are residents there. Everything is being done to evacuate them. It is difficult to talk about numbers now. There is a part of people, especially the older generation, who are very afraid of changes, of leaving their native homes and moving somewhere. We communicate with them, but not always everyone agrees (to leave),” said a representative of the Ukrainian army.

On Sunday evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Soledar is “resisting”, but the situation is “extremely difficult”.

On the other hand, Russian troops claim that they captured the village of Bakhmutke in the Donetsk region on Monday, according to a statement from the headquarters of the territorial defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

“As of January 9, 2023, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation liberated the village of Bakhmutske on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the message reads.

The village of Bakhmutke is located near Soledar and Bakhmut, “one of the bloodiest places on the front line,” according to President Zelensky.

___

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro