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PEOPLES DAILY, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2023 24 Asia&Middle-East Soledar: Ukraine battle hints at rift in pro-Russian forces

Russia’s defence ministry says its forces are taking part in the battle for Soledar, a town north of Bakhmut in east Ukraine which has been the focus of recent fighting.

It comes after the head of Russia’s notoriously brutal Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed his fighters were in full control there and boasted that only his troops took part.

Mr Prigozhin will most likely use any victory to bolster the reputation of Wagner as an effective fighting force in the eyes of President Putin.

But the Russian defence ministry appeared to contradict the controversial oligarch’s claims.

Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in the military’s daily update that: “Soledar has been blockaded from the north and the south by units of the Russian Airborne Forces.

“The Russian Air Force is carrying out strikes on enemy strongholds. Assault troops are taking part in battles inside the town.” There was no mention of Wagner forces.

Ukraine’s defence ministry also said on Wednesday that heavy fighting continues, and Wagner forces have had no success in breaking through its defences.

If Soledar falls, it will be a boost to Mr Prigozhin. In a statement released on Tuesday night, he boasted that “no other units took part in the storming of Soledar apart from Wagner”. Ukrainian and US officials have said that Wagner units make up a large part of forces fighting in the area.

Analysts have long spoken of tensions between the military and Wagner, and Mr Prigozhin has publicly criticised generals for allegedly being out of touch with the realities of the war in Ukraine.

While it is difficult to know for sure exactly whether infighting is going on in the corridors of power, there are some clues.

Yesterday, news agency Tass reported that Colonel-General Alexander Lapin was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces. Russian media quoted sources who claimed that the announcement of Gen Lapin’s position - he was one of those slammed by Mr Prigozhin last year - was made as a warning to the oligarch: don’t mess with the military.

But many here have been quick to praise Mr Prigozhin and Wagner for their apparent progress in Soledar. Influential media boss Margarita Simonyan gushed about how “polite” he is, signing off with a thanks to Wagner fighters, who she called “my little darlings!”

Likewise, pro-Kremlin military bloggers on Telegram lavished praise on the mercenary group. One blogger thanked them for “the emotions you’ve given us

The battles around Bakhmut are among the fiercest of the war

Ukraine cast doubt on a photo claiming to show Yevgeny Prigozhin inside a Soledar salt mine

tonight”.

Another said “When Soledar and [Bakhmut] are liberated, it will be a new chapter in Russian military history. The first time that a private military company has shown such results in a highly intensive military conflict”.

The strategic significance of Soledar is disputed by military analysts. But if Russian forces do succeed in establishing full control over the town, it will certainly be a symbolic victory for the Kremlin. That is because Moscow’s troops have failed to take a single significant town from Ukrainian forces since the summer of 2022.

Alireza Akbari: Iran preparing to execute British citizen - family

The family of a British-Iranian dual national sentenced to death in Iran have told BBC Persian that authorities are preparing to execute him.

Alireza Akbari’s wife, Maryam, said she had been asked to come to his prison for a “final meeting” and that he had been moved to solitary confinement.

The ex-deputy Iranian defence minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, which he denied.

The UK urged Iran to halt the planned execution and immediately release him.

“This is a politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted.

Earlier, a Foreign Office spokesperson told the BBC that it was supporting Mr Akbari’s family and had repeatedly raised his case with Iranian authorities.

It has requested urgent consular access, but Iran’s government does not recognise dual nationality for Iranians.

BBC Persian also broadcast an audio message on Wednesday from Mr Akbari in which he says he was tortured and forced to confess on camera to crimes he did not commit.

He says that he was living abroad a few years ago when he was invited to visit Iran at the request of a top Iranian diplomat who was involved in nuclear talks with world powers.

Once there, he adds, he was accused of obtaining top secret intelligence from the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, “in exchange for a bottle of perfume and a shirt”.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter Mr Akbari served under Mr Shamkhani when the latter was defence minister during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who was in office for two terms between 1997 and 2005.

Hours after the audio message was broadcast, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency confirmed for the first time that Mr Akbari had been found guilty of espionage, and that the Supreme Court had rejected his appeal.

It cited Iran’s intelligence ministry as saying that Mr Akbari had been “one of the most important infiltrators of the country’s sensitive and strategic centres” for the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, and that he had been “compiling and consciously transferring sensitive information”.

Iran is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually.

At the end of November, state media reported that authorities had hanged four men convicted of “co-operating” with Israeli intelligence.

Another four have been executed since December after being sentenced to death in connection with the anti-government protests engulfing the country.

Source: BBC