Resilient defense of Soledar and ongoing Bakhmut defense thwart Russia's plans - military expert Hrabskyi

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"I am convinced that the most desperate battles for Soledar and Bakhmut allowed us to gain time. We remember that on the eve of the New Year, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense announced that a new wave of mobilization in the Russian Federation would be launched on January 5. We can certainly assume with a high degree of probability that the enemy was planning to announce a new wave of mobilization amid some kind of victorious campaign near Soledar and Bakhmut. In addition, the enemy was concentrating additional forces in the Belarusian direction, and at that time we knew that 11,000 Russian troops were there. The further deployment of these forces and means on Belarusian territory could have led to a chain reaction and the start of mobilization in Belarus itself. The steadfast defense of Soledar and the continuation of the defense of Bakhmut actually thwarted the enemy's plans and forced them to abandon the idea of deploying a reinforced grouping in Belarus," the military expert noted.

Serhiy Hrabskyi emphasized that all military analysts and publications say that there is currently no threat of an offensive from the territory of Belarus.

"According to the latest statistics on the number of Russian troops, we know that half of the contingent that was located on Belarusian territory has moved to eastern Ukraine. Due to the losses, the enemy revised its plans and deployed additional units to maintain the pace of the offensive in the Bakhmut direction. The enemy was forced to engage in exhausting defensive battles on the streets of the city. Also, in recent days, monitoring the media, it is noticeable that the active actions of Wagner PMC are not discussed, which is a confirmation of its losses, which caused them to lose their combat capability for a long time. According to some reports, the number of their casualties is tens of thousands, which means that one of the relatively combat-ready units of the Russian army was defeated. The neutralization of this unit is of some importance in the next stages of the war, as well as for the development of the domestic political situation in Russia, because we understand that this undermines Prigozhin's ability to influence the situation," Hrabskyi said.

• On January 25, the spokesman for the eastern grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Soledar, Donetsk region.

• The General Staff also commented on whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces could withdraw from Bakhmut after Soledar.