The Ukrainian army has confirmed it has withdrawn from Soledar - nearly two weeks after Russian armed forces announced they had captured the town in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, BTA reported.

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"In order to preserve the lives of the personnel, the Ukrainian Defense Forces withdrew from Soledar," said the spokesman of the Eastern Military Group of Ukraine, Serhiy Cherevaty.

"(Our forces) fulfilled their main task of not allowing the enemy to systematically penetrate in the direction of Donetsk," Cherevati said.

The Ukrainian army admitted that it had ceded Soledar to Russian troops

He added that the Ukrainian servicemen had withdrawn to previously prepared defensive positions.

Moscow presents the battle for Soledar, located near Bakhmut, as a key city to capture the entire Donbass.

The advance brings Russian forces one step closer to Bakhmut, but military experts say the capture of Soledar is more symbolic than strategic.

Many of the Russian fighters around Soledar belong to the private paramilitary company Wagner, and there have been reports of bloody fighting there.

Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has made it a priority to establish full control over Donbas, a region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where it has supported a local separatist movement since 2014. Russia has seized most of Luhansk region, but about half of Donetsk region remains under Ukrainian control.

Taking Soledar under control would potentially allow Russian forces to cut off supplies to Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, although it is not known how fortified Ukraine's new defensive positions are.

The Institute for the Study of War commented earlier this month that the fall of Soledar would not be an "operationally significant development and is unlikely to herald an immediate Russian siege of Bakhmut".

According to the Washington-based think tank, the Russian information campaign has "exaggerated the importance of Soledar", which is a small town, while the long and difficult battle has contributed to the exhaustion of Russian forces.

Perhaps even more worryingly for Moscow, Western military aid to Ukraine is now being boosted by the supply of tanks.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in the past 24 hours, Russian forces had carried out four missile, 26 air and more than 100 attacks with rocket launchers.

Russian forces are concentrating their efforts to establish control over the Donetsk region, launching an offensive around the fortified towns of Bakhmut, Liman, and Avdeevka, as well as the village of Novopavlovka, noted its spokesman Oleksandr Stupun.

In addition to Donetsk Oblast, Russian attacks have targeted settlements in northeastern Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts, northern Chernihiv Oblast, easternmost Luhansk Oblast, southeastern Zaporozhye Oblast, and southern Kherson Oblast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who went from being a professional comedian to an internationally recognized wartime leader, turned 45 today.

Ukraine: Russia gave as many victims in Soledar as in the two Chechen wars

His wife, Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska, said that while he was the same as when they met at 17, "something has changed - he smiles much less now".

"Wish you have more reasons to smile. And you know what it takes, we all do," she wrote on Twitter.

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