1/ Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted a video, apparently filmed in or near Soledar, in which he praises the capabilities and skills of Wagner fighters, implicitly casting them as superior to the regular Russian military. Translation below. ⬇️
2/ "I came here to present medals to the guys who took Soledar. This is the man who commanded the capture of Soledar. He liberated it in two weeks. Soledar was clamped in a pincer, then divided into parts.
3/ "The enemy units were surrounded, those who refused to surrender were destroyed. All the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen will be handed over and sent to their homeland.
4/ "Numerous questions from journalists ask how and why the [fighters of the] Wagner private military company have such efficiency. Firstly, they have been fighting for many years. They are probably the most experienced army in the world.
5/ "Secondly, they perform all tasks independently. They have aircraft, the pilots are heroes who are not afraid to die. There are MLRS of all kinds. There is air defence, which has already shot down a huge number of enemy aircraft.
6/ There are artillery of all calibres, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and assault units that have no equal in the world.
And the most important thing in Wagner is the control system. A perfectly developed control system.
And the most important thing in Wagner is the control system. A perfectly developed control system.
7/ In the Wagner PMC, everyone can hear, everyone can say their opinion. The commanders consult with the fighters, and the leadership of the PMC consults with the commanders. If a decision is made, then all tasks will completed, no one can retreat.
8/ "[Wagner has] the most severe discipline that gives us these opportunities. Therefore, the PMC Wagner went forward and will go forward."
(Thanks to @vicktop555 for the translation.)
(Thanks to @vicktop555 for the translation.)
9/ The Russian Telegram channel 'Special Purpose Channel' names the Wagner commander in the video as 'Lotos', who it says is a 'hero of Russia'. 
10/ Another Russian Telegram channel, the pro-Kremlin 'Brussels Connection' channel, has published a picture of the medal awarded by Prigozhin, which bears the words "For the capture of Soledar".
11/ Meanwhile, Wagner sources admit that they do not yet control the whole of Soledar. A source tells the VchK-OGPU channel that Ukraine still controls the western edge of Soledar and the village of Blahodatne, across the river Bakhmutka (shown in this map).
12/ "Nobody is actively storming it any more. Active fighting has subsided," according to the source. He says that it is extremely difficult to attempt anything in this area as "everything is shot at" by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and any attempts lead to numerous casualties.
13/ Meanwhile, in Bakhmut, Wagner members fighting in the city's eastern outskirts around Patrice Lumumba Street – shown in yellow in the red area of this map – say they are experiencing very difficult conditions and things are "tense" there.
14/ According to a video interview, continuous Ukrainian artillery fire against Wagner positions is seriously hampering movement during daylight hours. The Wagner-linked Grey Zone Telegram channel reports:
15/ "During the day, the street is mainly used for emergency medical evacuations only, and the residential buildings here are almost completely destroyed as PMC fighters knocked out the Ukrainian soldiers who had set up firing points in the houses." /end
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