DPR says taking of Soledar allows direct fire at Artyomovsk

Soledar
©EPA-EFE/MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES

Andrey Bayevsky, a lawmaker at the legislature of the Donetsk People’s Republic and a colonel of the People’s Militia, on Thursday said on Solovyov Live television that the main benefit of capturing Soledar is the opportunity to open direct fire on Artyomovsk.

"Seizing control of Soledar means direct sight of the highway from Slavyansk to Artyomovsk and the opportunity to fire on it practically directly," he said.

Bayevsky also said control over Soledar was important from the perspective of isolating Artyomovsk. It means "the cutting of supply routes for the Artyomovsk grouping and the cutting off of all opportunities to provide it with personnel and ammunition."

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation showed how the mobilized destroy Ukrainian camouflaged positions and artillery with the help of modernized Msta-SM2 self-propelled artillery mounts

He described Soledar as an important step in in the assault on Artyomovsk.

"Soledar opens the way for artillery fire toward Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka, let alone Artyomovsk. The targets that will be defined by the command will be hit with artillery fire. It’s extremely important for the softening of the enemy’s defense," Bayevsky said.

That would make it possible to take control of these settlements with fewer losses and ram through Ukrainian defenses faster, he said.

According to Bayevsky, Soledar is generally under Russian control while fighting with the remnants of Ukrainian forces still goes on.

The First Slavic Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces shows footage of the use of "lighters" - ammunition that detonates over enemy positions and covers the area with a rain of military incendiary material

Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that Soledar, which had been at the center of battles in recent days, was seized by the fighters of the Wagner private military company. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday that Russian troops had blocked Soledar from the north and south and battles were raging inside the city.

Battle for Barkhmut according to Mark Sleboda, a veteran of the US military and international affairs and security analyst

All eyes are on Bakhmut (Artyomovsk), a Donbass city-turned-meat grinder for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which are sustaining heavy losses there. Mark Sleboda, a US military veteran and international affairs and security analyst, has explained to Sputnik why the city is so important for both sides of the conflict.

“First of all, from a level of its significance, one of the Russian military priorities was to secure all the Donbass, to secure the liberation of the entirety there,” Mark Sleboda told Sputnik. “And that being kind of right in the center of the Donetsk region, Bakhmut has often been called the key to Donetsk. So, of course, all of that area has to be liberated (...) Bakhmut is also a major transport and logistical hub because it's got two highways that intersected and railroads that run north all the way to Moscow and then they go through south and then bend around down into Donetsk city.”

A resident of the liberated Soledar in the DPR spoke about the colossal Ukrainian losses in the city, according to him, everyone was taken "for meat" in a row - both mobilized and contract soldiers

Second, Bakhmut is the linchpin of the entire second line of defense of the Kiev regime, the US military veteran continued.

“After that, there's only one last defensive line in Donetsk of any major node between Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, further to the west,” Sleboda noted.

Third, taking Bakhmut threatens further advances and flanks in other directions due to its geographical location. Finally, it would allow greater control of the Donetsk-Seversky Canal, which provides water to Donetsk city, according to the analyst. Sleboda pointed out that the Kiev regime cut off the water supply to Donetsk five years ago. “They did it in Crimea as well,” the analyst added. “Cutting off water is what they do.”

Following the February 2014 regime change in Kiev, the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) established control over Bakhmut (known as Artyomovsk at that time). However, the Kiev military junta captured the town in July 2014.

The city is of utmost importance to both sides, and the entire conflict now is centered on what happens there. The Kiev regime has sent tens of thousands of reinforcements into Bakhmut, which are being methodically eliminated by the Russian forces, according to the analyst. Presently, the standoff over the city has escalated dramatically, he stressed.

Entire Front Around Bakhmut is Activated

“The entire front line, particularly to the area north and south of Bakhmut and Donetsk, is fully activated,” Sleboda said. “And everywhere along there, Russian units, particularly led by the private military company (PMC) Wagner (Group), are on the assault.”

The US military veteran explained that the Russian military forces are also advancing in Soledar, a small town which lies 18 km northeast of Bakhmut. On Monday, the Defense Staff of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) announced that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Bakhmutskoe near the town of Soledar. The developments could pave the way for the liberation of Donbass.

“Both Bakhmut and Soledar are both at the same time penetrated [by the Russian forces] and there is fighting within the city districts (...) Russia is making now quicker progress, I would say. There is fierce defense, there's no question about that, but it’s penetrating and enveloping at an increasingly faster rate,” Sleboda pointed out.

According to the analyst, there appears to be some general breakdown in the Kiev regime's ability to rotate forces and supply reinforcements at the rate they have been doing for the last few months.

“Also, their artillery has to a much higher degree been silenced,” the military veteran continued. “Russian counter-battery artillery fire has been extremely offensive. What was already a 9-to-1 advantage in terms of artillery is probably at this point greater.”

To cap it off, the Ukrainian forces have been sustaining heavy losses which are between 300 and 1,000 people a day as per western reports. Roughly 90% of Kiev regime casualties continue to be by Russian artillery strikes, according to Sleboda.

Bakhmut Defense: City Beneath City

The particularity of the fight over Bakhmut and adjusted areas is that they're very easy to defend and very hard to attack because of the height advantage. Those who control this height can see everything and fire down on approaching troops, explained the US military veteran. “To get a scale, the Kiev regime just in the Bakhmut area has some 60,000 troops,” Sleboda said. “Now, a lot of them are conscripts in territorial defense, but they also have some of their best troops there. According to the head of Wagner (Yevgeny Prigozhin), they have erected some 500 defensive lines of trenches within the city.”

In addition, Bakhmut has an “unusual geography where it is split by a river and has bodies of water in it, which makes it more easily defendable,” according to the analyst.

“Then, there are extensive underground tunnels in Bakhmut that converge, it seems, at some point with the large salt mines of Soledar just to the north of it,” the veteran continued. “These were built as very extensive WW2-era bunker systems and fortifications by the Soviet Union. Some of these tunnels are reportedly big enough to drive tanks into and out of. So, there is a city beneath the city that is being fought in which makes the defense of it even better from a defensive position, and much harder to attack.”

However, despite all of the above, Russian forces are now advancing, Sleboda stressed, adding that just in the last two days, there was a breakthrough in Soledar, which will help threaten the Ukrainian military's entire defensive line there.

This is also important because in the north there is also a large Kiev offensive grouping in the direction of the small cities of Kremennaya and Svatovo, the analyst emphasized.

“The Kiev regime has been on an offensive there very quietly,” said Sleboda. “No one's talking a lot about that front to the north of this area in Bakhmut, and they have some 40,000 troops there, and they have been throwing them at Kremennaya. (They are) making some marginal gains and settlements, but suffering very high casualties and appears to have petered out there. If Soledar collapses the way it looks like it's going, then Seversk will essentially be undefendable to the north of it. And if Seversk is undefendable, that is the launching pad for much of the attack on Svatovo and Kremennaya. So, that means that the entire northern offensive grouping of the Kiev regime will be unsustainable.”

One could see that the whole Ukrainian military offensive is stalled there and may have to be pulled back to save them from being enveloped by a quick Russian surge if there is a greater breakthrough in the Kiev regime lines, according to the US military veteran.

Sleboda has also drawn attention to what appear to be active mobilizations in south Donetsk, in Ugledar, in Zaporozhye, and also further to the north and the west on the Belorussian-Ukrainian border. These activities have become possible because the ground is all getting frozen now and everyone is preparing for that "winter fighting weather," as per the analyst.

Russia-NATO Standoff is Escalating

Meanwhile, the overall conflict against Russia in Ukraine is escalating, with NATO member states stepping up their military supplies to Kiev. A new US military aid package for Kiev contains a long list of military equipment and ammunition, including 50 Bradley fighting vehicles with 500 TOW anti-tank missiles and 250,000 rounds of 25mm ammunition, 100 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, Sea Sparrow RIM-7 missiles for air defense, additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and 100 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged an unspecified number of AMX-10 RC light tanks to Kiev, while Germany vowed to provide 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to the Ukrainian military. For their part, Polish and Finnish ministers are considering supplying some of their German-made Leopard 2 or US M1 Abrams tanks if the major western powers take the lead.

“The Western European countries are providing outdated infantry fighting vehicles,” said Sleboda. “They are not quite vintage. These are models that were just being phased out of use. So, they have them in stock and they're still fairly effective.”

Sleboda does not rule out that soon one may also see NATO member states sending main battle tanks to Kiev, even though previously it was largely seen as a “red line.” In addition to that, all the signs are that there's another Patriot battery now being promised by Germany, he remarked.

However, western supplies won’t become a dramatic game changer, given that Russia has been surging huge amounts of new state-of-the-art equipment to the front, either, according to him. Make no mistake, “this is all escalating,” the US military veteran said.

“If you thought the fighting in 2022 and the political divisions were significant, 2023 is right now they're just handing off their beer. Hold my beer, because 2023 is going to make 2022 look like a skirmish,” he concluded.

Special operation, January 12th. The main thing:

▪️Putin, in congratulating the prosecutors on their professional holiday, said that it is important to pay special attention to the observance of the rights of military personnel, mobilized and volunteers.

▪️ Peskov, commenting on the liberation of Soledar, said that these are heroic actions, but it’s not the time to stop and rub your hands, the main work is ahead;

▪️According to Peskov, the Kremlin assesses the situation around the ZNPP as alarming, Ukraine still considers it possible to shell the station;

▪️Moskalkova stated that she did not discuss the idea of ​​a humanitarian corridor for the wounded in Ukraine with the Ukrainian Ombudsman at a meeting in Ankara;

▪️First Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky announced a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine on January 17 at the initiative of Moscow.

▪️The Politico publication reported that the position of German Chancellor Scholz on the issue of supplying Leopard tanks to Ukraine is highly dependent on Biden;

▪️The Iranian Ambassador in Rome denied reports of losses in Ukraine of Iranian-made drones, which, according to media reports, are allegedly actively used by Russia;

▪️Germany promised Ukraine to supply 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles in the first quarter of 2023;

▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Russian soldiers destroyed 5 Ukrainian DRGs in the Kharkiv region;

▪️According to the Russian Defense Ministry, more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers were destroyed in the main areas;

▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed five Ukrainian drones in a day, and also intercepted three HIMARS and Alder MLRS shells, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

Snowden: Biden Seems to Have 'Absconded' With More Classified Docs Than Whistleblowers

Yes, Joe Biden may have broken the Espionage Act. But the law is the problem

©Photo : Twitter / @valtaprosessi

Joe Biden's lawyers discovered a second batch of classified documents from his vice presidency stint at a new location on January 11, US media reported, just a day after the US president was "surprised" when briefed about the first set of records related to Ukraine and Iran, among other security issues, found in his private office.

Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden offered some scathing comment on Joe Biden’s classified document scandal. The man who himself blew the lid on a widely-cast net of cyber espionage organized by the US ironized on his Twitter feed that the US President appeared to have "absconded with more classified documents than many whistleblowers."

He cited the case of US National Security Agency whistleblower Reality Winner, sentenced to five years in a federal prison in August 2018 for leaking a classified report about the Russiagate investigation.

The real scandal isn't that Biden had classified documents coming out of his socks, because sadly they've all been doing it.

The scandal is that the DOJ found out about it a week prior to the midterm elections and chose to suppress the story, conferring a partisan advantage. https://t.co/Zgx5FEpPeH

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 12, 2023

Meanwhile, Snowden wrote, "Biden, Trump, Clinton, Petraeus... these guys have dozens, hundreds [of documents]. No jail."

According to Snowden, the real scandal wasn't that the 46th POTUS had "classified documents coming out of his socks," but that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) found out about it a week prior to the November 2022 midterm elections, but opted to "suppress the story."

Edward Snowden has every right to take a sardonic view of the situation regarding the Biden classified documents row. Back in June 2013, Snowden was charged by the US Justice Department with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and government property theft, after he exposed classified data to the press.

The data in question showed that US intelligence services and their allies were spying on US citizens and foreign leaders on a grand scale. Following this, Snowden fled the US. As he was heading to South America, the whistleblower had his passport revoked, and was forced to spend a month in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport until the Russian government granted him asylum. Edward Snowden in early December officially became a Russian citizen, taking an oath of allegiance and receiving a Russian passport, after a September decree by President Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship.

Successive disclosures earlier in the week by US media revealed that several classified files had been found in Biden’s private offices dated 2013-2016 and hailing back to his vice presidency. Biden's lawyers ostensibly found the documents while clearing his office at the Penn Center, a Washington-based think tank, in November 2022, and other presumably unprotected locations.

According to the White House special counsel, they had immediately contacted the US National Archives who forwarded the information to the Justice Department. Among the first batch of documents, now under the Justice Department's review, were purportedly classified materials related to Ukraine, Iran, and the UK, among other security issues. Despite confidants coming across the docs on the eve of the midterm elections in early November 2022, the US DOJ chose to remain silent about the story.

The scandal prompted conservative outlets to draw parallels between the current classified memo drama and the uproar over ex-POTUS Donald Trump keeping classified documents at his premises in Mar-a-Lago.

Last year, despite Trump voluntarily turning over a number of government files he had stored after leaving the Oval Office, the FBI carried out a raid on his residence on August 8, 2022 and seized 13,000 documents from the location. Just 103 of them turned out to be classified and 18 were marked "top secret." The 45th US president maintained that he had declassified the files before he left office. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the case of Trump's classified documents, with Republicans recently calling on the AG to appoint a special counsel for Biden too.

With President Joe Biden now embroiled in his own classified documents controversy, partisan commentators will surely have a field day playing the tired old game of “no, you endangered national security.” Instead, I’d like to focus on the real issues: the overly broad and often-abused Espionage Act and the massive, draconian secrecy system that does far more harm than good in the United States.

Now, before someone accuses me of “both side-ing” the separate Trump and Biden scandals here: no, they are not the same. Trump had mountains of secret documents he purposefully absconded with that he both refused to give back and arguably lied to authorities about. Whereas it seems Biden’s team actually alerted the authorities that the president had them in his office and is fully cooperating in their return.

This should be yet another wake up call that both the classification system and the Espionage Act need a dramatic overhaul. The question is — as more secret documents are found at a second Biden location and Trump’s special prosecutor continues to work — will anyone listen?

But here’s the thing: that doesn’t mean Biden didn’t potentially violate the Espionage Act – at least according to some legal experts.

That’s because the Espionage Act is incredibly broad and spares no one. As I’ve explained before, even using the Espionage Act to go after Trump should not be cheered on by Democrats. Instead of actual spies, the hundred year-old law is usually abused to prosecute whistleblowers and threaten journalists. But it’s actually so broad that if you are a longtime reader of the Guardian, you’ve probably technically broken the law too!

“Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document…relating to the national defense…willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it” is in violation of the statute.

Thankfully the First Amendment should ultimately protect both the Guardian and its readers from prosecution. (Ironically, first the Trump administration, and now the Biden administration may be trying to change that with its unprecedented and dangerous charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.)

Regardless, such an overly broad and dangerous law should not be on the books in the first place. The reason the Justice Department is able to potentially wield it over so many people is because the secrecy system itself is irrevocably broken.

The US government has a massive overclassification problem - and that’s not just my opinion as a transparency advocate. Even the people who have been in charge of administering the secrecy system often denounce it once they leave government.

Tens or hundreds of millions of documents are classified per year. A tiny fraction will ever see the light of day, despite the fact the vast majority never should have been given the “secret” stamp in the first place. Of all the money spent on the classification system, less than half of one percent is spent on de-classification.

The system is set up so the government has every incentive to claim any information is of the utmost sensitivity because they know anyone they prosecute cannot challenge their classification decisions. And it doesn’t matter that, time and again, they have been shown to grossly exaggerate or lie about the true nature of those supposed “secrets.”

No one is ever punished for overclassifying information, yet plenty of people go to prison for disclosing information to journalists that never should have been classified to begin in. Even efforts to reform the secrecy system end up classified themselves.

Take the reporting on the Biden controversy. CNN reported that the “classified materials included some top-secret files with the ‘sensitive compartmented information’ designation, also known as SCI, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources.” They cited an anonymous source (almost certainly law enforcement). Yet CNN also said that a “White House official characterized the documents as ‘fewer than a dozen,’ … none of which are ‘particularly sensitive’ and ‘not of high interest to the intelligence community.’”

So which is it? Maybe somebody’s lying. Or maybe it’s all Top Secret and also basically nothing, because the US government classifies everything.

As journalist Jeremy Scahill pointed out, political elites constantly mishandle classified documents, but never receive the severe punishment lower level whistleblowers do when they commit same or similar crimes. It’s true there is a severe double standard that has ruined the lives of so many brave whistleblowers. But maybe, just maybe, now that the classification system has ensnared each of the last two presidents, people will start coming to their senses: tear down the US secrecy system before it tears down its next victim.

Egyptian authorities detain thieves who attempted to steal 10-ton Ramses II statue

File photo from Jan. 25, 2018: a drone flies around a giant statue of Pharaoh Ramses II as it ...
©africanews Amr Nabil/Copyright 2018 The AP. All rights reserved.

Three men in Egypt have been arrested after allegedly trying to steal a 10-tonne statue of the pharaoh Ramses II using a forklift.

The Public Prosecution in Egypt ordered on Tuesday the detainment of 3 suspects for 4 days pending investigations

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that the suspects snuck into a quarry in the Nile governorate of Aswan and — using "manual digging tools" as well as the forklift — tried to prise the 3-metre statue from its place.

The quarry itself is government property and is subject to Egypt's Antiquities Protection Law.

They are accused of attempting to steal a pharaonic statue in the southern quarry area in Aswan.

The committee formed by the Antiquities Authority in Aswan confirmed the value of the statue and attributed it to King Ramses II, with a weight of approximately ten tons.

Judicial sources stated that the site where the suspects excavated the statue is subject to the Antiquities Protection Law.

The site of the theft of the statue of Ramses II in Aswan. Source: Al Ahram

The Public Prosecution ordered the speedy investigation of others who participated with the detained suspects in the crime.

On January 8, the Public Prosecution Office received a notification from the police that three people were arrested and caught with manual digging tools and heavy equipment and a crane.

It was quite obvious that they tried to lift the statue of King Ramses II and were excavating antiquities in the aforementioned area.

The Public Prosecution office conducted investigations into the report, and inspected the site, which was found to be not fenced off.

The size of the area is 34 acres bordered by industrial zones and a museum (symposium).

It was revealed that there are some Roman basins in it, and the presence of the exact statue of King Ramses II inside the area, which is about three meters long and about one-meter-wide.

Traces of the excavation process were observed around it as well.

Other suspects are being investigated in connection with the attempted theft, prosecutors said.

"Upon examining their mobile phones, the Public Prosecution found video clips shared through social networking applications showing other excavation works," the authorities said.

The suspects will be detained for four days pending investigation.

Aswan is home to some of Egypt's most prized archaeological sites. These include the Roman-era Temple of Isis and other areas that have become tourist attractions. More discoveries are made regularly.

Illegal archaeological excavations are not uncommon in Egypt, especially along the Nile where there are many antiquity sites.

In 2021, prominent businessman Hassan Rateb was arrested for funding illegal excavation works and was eventually convicted.

Second Biden search yields additional classified documents

Earlier this week, an attorney for Biden said the president’s personal lawyers had discovered a small number of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, an institute in downtown Washington that Biden started after serving as vice president. People familiar with the matter said that discovery involved about 10 classified documents.

Biden’s lawyers notified government agencies, and the Justice Department opened an investigation to see how the classified material got there and whether there was any other material that should be under government lock and key.

Story continues below advertisement Legal representatives for the president found additional classified material at a second location, a person said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The person would not say when that material was found. The second batch of classified material was first reported by NBC News.

Spokesmen for the Justice Department, the FBI and the White House declined to comment. Earlier in the day, a White House spokeswoman refused to say if any additional classified material had been found beyond the batch at the Penn Biden Center.

“This is under review by the Department of Justice. I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, declining to respond to several questions about whether additional properties — including Biden’s Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach — had been searched.

White House officials have said that they are cooperating with the Justice Department and that Biden’s lawyers quickly handed over the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration — the agency tasked with handling presidential records.

Story continues below advertisement A Biden lawyer said the classified documents at the Penn Biden Center were found Nov. 2, when one of his personal attorneys opened a locked closet to pack up the contents. The White House Counsel’s Office notified the Archives, which took possession of the documents the following day, a Biden lawyer said.

That discovery came not long before Attorney General General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the agency’s criminal investigation into former president Donald Trump’s possible mishandling of hundreds of classified documents that were taken to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended. Officials have said the investigation of Trump concerns not just the possible mishandling of government secrets but also possible obstruction of justice or destruction of records.

To review the discovery of Biden classified documents, Garland tapped U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch Jr. of Chicago, a holdover from the Trump administration. Depending on what this initial investigation yields, Garland could decide to appoint a special counsel.

Story continues below advertisement While the Biden case has obvious echoes of the Mar-a-Lago investigation into Trump’s conduct, the details provided by Biden’s lawyer Monday suggest key differences that could factor heavily in whether the Biden documents become a criminal matter.

Biden’s lawyer Richard Sauber said the Biden documents were discovered by the president’s lawyers and voluntarily turned over to authorities. By comparison, in Trump’s case, NARA officials pressed for material to be handed over, and then Trump’s office was served with a grand jury subpoena demanding their return. After Trump’s lawyers delivered 38 classified documents in response to the subpoena, an FBI search recovered more than 100 additional classified documents that were not turned over to authorities.

Much of the criminal investigation into the keeping of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence, has centered on what officials have described in court papers as possible obstruction of the efforts to recover all of the documents. So far, no such allegation has been leveled in the Biden matter, though it is at an earlier stage.

Story continues below advertisement Legal experts say that it is not uncommon for some people who have security clearances to mishandle classified documents. But these situations are typically handled administratively, not criminally, because the criteria for prosecuting people who mishandle classified documents include proving that the person deliberately flouted rules for how to secure the materials.

Biden opened the Penn Biden Center in February 2018 as a think tank for the University of Pennsylvania in Washington, attracting some of the country’s top foreign policy experts and lawmakers.

Garland tapped U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois John Lausch to determine how the first set of records ended up at Penn Biden Center. Following the review, which is expected to yield a report, Garland can appoint a special counsel to escalate the investigation if warranted.

The Biden document discoveries come after the FBI raided with a search warrant former president Donald Trump’s Florida home months ago on the grounds that he mishandled documents the government claimed as its property and that should have been delivered to the National Archives.

During a September appearance on “60 Minutes,” Biden said of the trove of records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago: “How that could possibly happen? How anyone could be that irresponsible. And it just — totally irresponsible.”

Ukrainian hospitals overflowing with troops from Soledar — Russian special forces officer

©AP Photo/Libkos, File

Hospitals in a number of Ukrainian cities are overflowing with wounded troops from the Donetsk People’s Republic’s town of Soledar, commander of the Troy volunteer special forces unit Vladimir Novikov (codenamed Alabay) told TASS.

"All hospitals in the Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions are really full of wounded troops, mostly from Soledar," he said, adding that it was hard to estimate Kiev’s losses in Soledar because the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ command sought to withhold information on killed troops.

According to Novikov, the Ukrainian army suffered huge losses in Soledar though the Ukrainian command had "sent the most capable forces" there.

Former Ambassador of the Lugansk People's Republic to Moscow Rodion Miroshnik said earlier that Ukraine had lost about 25,000 people in the battles for Soledar and those losses were irreparable.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Soledar, which had been an arena of hostilities over the past days, had been taken under control by combatants of the Wagner private military company and that there was a pocket in the city center where fighting was raging. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov reported later on Wednesday that Russian forces had blocked Soledar from the north and south and fighting was going on in the city. Yan Gagin, a military and political expert from the DPR, previously told TASS that up to 500 Ukrainian service members might remain in Soledar.

Victory in Soledar Opens Door to Liberation of All Donbass, DPR Lawmaker Says

Russian forces have established control over Soledar, a town lying around 18 km from Bakhmut (Artyomovsk), which has recently become the linchpin of the Russo-Ukrainian standoff.

"Donbass is the main direction [of offensive] now; as you can see, it goes on the Artemovsk-Soledar-Seversk line," Vladislav Berdichevsky, a lawmaker of the parliament of Russia's Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), told Sputnik.

"This is now the first line of defense from this side. On the other hand, there is Maryinka, Krasnogorovka, and Avdeevka. There is also a very tense situation there now. But so far, there have been more positional battles there than in Soledar-Artemovsk. Soledar is almost under control now. A mini-cauldron was created there, closer to the west of Soledar."

Acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, announced on Tuesday that the Wagner Group private military company (PMC) had gained the center of the town of Soledar. Pushilin noted that Ukrainian troops had been suffering serious losses but continued to resist.

On Wednesday, Russian forces managed to spread their control over the rest of the town. A fighting cauldron has been formed in the center of the city, where urban battles are taking place, according to the company’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The liberation of Soledar will not only pave the way to the taking of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut), but will also ensure the liberation of other parts of the former Donetsk region, including Slavyansk, Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and further north, according to Berdichevsky.

"It is important to 'grind' this line of defense now, [Ukraine's] most combat-ready units are there, Ukrainian special forces are participating there, and, in principle, everyone is pulling up there," the DPR lawmaker said. "Judging from obituaries there are a lot of dead there, including border guards and policemen. That is, various units are involved there, they seem to be thrown there all the time for support and they are crushed there by our troops."

Makeevka Attack & Christmas Ceasefire

On January 1, at 00:01 Moscow time (21:01 December, 31 GMT), Ukrainian artillery fired six HIMARS rockets at a temporary deployment point of a Russian military unit in the area of Makeevka, with two rockets intercepted by air defense. The attack claimed the lives of 89 Russian soldiers.

Following the Kiev regime's strike, Moscow called on the Ukrainian leadership to implement a ceasefire on Orthodox Christmas Day to allow Russian and Ukrainian civilians to celebrate the sacred holiday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Defense Ministry to introduce a 36-hour ceasefire along the line of contact between the warring sides from January 6-7. However, Moscow's request was rejected by Kiev: the Ukrainian military continued to shell Russia's military positions and residential areas during the holiday.

Kiev's snubbing of Russia's ceasefire initiative is hardly surprising given that the Ukrainian authorities are doing everything to keep the war going as long as possible, according to Berdichevsky. He pointed out that the Kiev regime's strings are actually being pulled by US policy-makers, who have forbidden Ukraine from conducting any negotiations with Moscow, because the goal of the US is to bleed Russia dry and to try to Balkanize it.

"(Washington) hoped that the supply of weapons and funding to Ukraine would lead to many casualties in Russia and mass unrest," the DPR lawmaker said, adding that the US and its NATO allies have failed to reach their objectives. "Their goal is a war to the last Ukrainian, there will be no negotiations, I think, there will only be [Kiev's] capitulation."

After the Christmas holidays, the Russian military avenged the Makeevka tragedy. In the result of the retaliatory operation, over 600 Ukrainian troops were reportedly eliminated in the city of Kramatorsk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Berdichevsky highlighted that the Russian military is attacking positions of the Ukrainian nationalists on a regular basis. He added that Banderites – the ideological heirs of Nazi Germany collaborator Stepan Bandera – are typically deploying their units in civilian facilities, including schools and kindergartens, especially old Soviet ones which have big thick walls.

"I just think that we need to cover this more actively in the media," Berdichevsky remarked, adding that "the enemy’s losses can be quite large during the day precisely from attacks on temporary accommodation points."

"For the Russian troops it was a surprise that the first and second [military] corps of Lugansk had drones, that they actively used them; and the Russian army relied on satellites, as they used to do in Syria," Berdichevsky said. "But here the situation is different. Ukraine has a lot of unmanned aircraft. They used them more actively; [UAVs] have already been tested on the front lines."

Moscow managed to quickly fill this gap: Russia-made "Geran-2" and "Lancet" drones are being successfully used in Ukraine now.

Likewise, the coordination between Russia's units and the understanding of the situation on the ground has been elevated to a new level, according to the DPR lawmaker.

"I see great prospects for Russia," said Berdichevsky. "The mobilized units are being trained and their number at the front is somewhere around 30% of those who were mobilized. They are being trained and undergoing combat coordination. Therefore, we hope that the Russian offensive will be kicked off in the near future."

Airlangga Hartarto - Perpu Cipta Kerja Bisa Tingkatkan Investasi

Menko Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto dalam program BeritaSatu Spesial yang dityangkan BTV, Senin, 9 Januari 2023. Dalam wawancara khusus tersebut dibahas secara mendalam Perppu No 2 Tahun 2022 tentang Cipta Kerja. (Foto: B-Universe/Mohammad Defrizal)

Menko Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto menilai terbitnya Perpu Cipta Kerja, terutama menyangkut investasi yang ditargetkan mencapai Rp 1.400 triliun pada 2023, itu bisa menciptakan iklim investasi yang kondusif dan mendorong penambahan lapangan kerja.

“Tentu, yang namanya job market itu ada supply dan demand. Demand side-nya itu dari investasi,” kata Airlangga, dikutip Tempo dari laman resmi Kemenko Perekonomian, Kamis, 12 Januari 2023

Menurut Airlangga, Perpu Nomor 2 Tahun 2022 ini memberikan kepastian hukum bagi investor. “Tentu investor itu butuh kepastian hukum. Kalau kepastian hukumnya harus menunggu, maka investor akan wait and see,” ujar Ailangga.

Padahal, lanjut Airlangga, wait and see tidak diperlukan. "Karena kalau wait and see dilakukan, maka satu pihak PHK-nya real, tapi lapangan kerjanya menggantung. Nah ini kita mau mencocokkan,” ujarnya.

Lebih lanjut, Airlangga menegaskan bahwa dalam situasi ekonomi yang tidak normal, diperlukan kemudahan berusaha dan iklim usaha yang lebih baik. Melalui Perpu Cipta Kerja, dia pun berharap investor domestik mampu melakukan ekspansi usaha. Begitu pula dengan usaha mikro, kecil, menengah (UMKM) yang diharapkan bisa melanjutkan usaha, apalagi telah memperpanjang restrukturisasi kredit bagi UMKM hingga Maret 2024.

Menurut Airlangga, gejolak ekonomi global di tahun ini tetap tidak mudah akibat konflik Ukraina dan Rusia serta konflik lainnya yang masih terjadi menyebabkan berbagai negara menghadapi krisis pangan, energi, keuangan, dan perubahan iklim sehingga kondisi krisis untuk emerging/developing country sangat nyata.

Bahkan beberapa negara berkembang tengah meminta bantuan pendanaan kepada International Monetary Fund (IMF) untuk menghadapi tekanan global saat ini.

“IMF sampaikan sepertiga dunia masuk resesi, 19 negara jadi pasien IMF, lebih dari 30 sedang antre dan tentu di tengah ketidakpastian perlu kepastian salah satunya kepastian reformasi. Restrukturisasi yang dilakukan Indonesia dalam bentuk revisi 79 Perundang undangan situasi ketidakpastian dan tahun ini masuk dalam APBN normal,”tegasnya.

Lebih lanjut, Airlangga optimistis bahwa kinerja ekonomi domestik di tahun ini akan tetap kuat seiring proses pemulihan ekonomi yang terus terakselerasi di tahun ini. Terlebih dalam Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Negara (APBN) defisit sudah dipatok dibawah 3%.

Menteri Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto menilai nasib perekonomian Indonesia pada tahun ini seutuhnya bergantung pada investasi. Menurutnya, inilah yang menjadi alasan pemerintah mengeluarkan Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang/Perpu Cipta Kerja dalam rangka memberikan kepastian hukum kepada para investor.

"Nah kalau di tahun ini sepenuhnya tergantung daripada investasi, artinya kalau investasi berarti harus ada iklim yang baik dan iklim yang baik tentu salah satunya kepastian hukum, nah salah satu itulah yang kemarin pemerintah memutuskan untuk menerbitkan Perpu Cipta Kerja sehingga kepastian di sektor investasi itu jelas dan kepastian ini akan mendukung penciptaan lapangan kerja," jelasnya, pada hari Selasa, 10/01/2023.

Untuk itu lanjut Airlangga dengan adanya Perpu Cipta Kerja ini pemerintah berupaya untuk menciptakan ekosistem investasi yang dapat mendukung kemudahan berinvestasi di Indonesia. "Kembali yang namanya investasi itu butuh ekosistem, ekosistem daripada investasi mulai dari perpajakan, perizinan, amdal, kemudian juga tata ruang dan berbagai ekosistem yang memudahkan orang melakukan investasi. Itu ada 79 UU yang direvisi dengan UU cipta kerja," ujarnya.

Lebih lanjut ia mengatakan di tahun politik ini pemerintah memiliki target investasi sebesar Rp 1.400 triliun. Menurutnya Perpu ini akan dapat membantu mencapai target tersebut mengingat pemerintah sudah tidak lagi menerapkan program pemulihan ekonomi nasional dan menetapkan angka maksimum defisit di 3% PDB.

"Nah tahun ini pemerintah tidak bisa memainkan anggaran dibandingkan 2-3 tahun lalu, karena pemerintah sudah mematok anggaran itu maksimum budget defisit adalah 3% dan Perpu terkait dengan anggaran yang fleksibel, penanganan Covid dan pemulihan ekonomi sudah selesai di 31 Desember 2022, sehingga ini menjadi jalur kembali mekanisme APBN dengan DPR. Berarti hanya ada kemungkinan 2, APBN yang sudah diketok dan revisi APBN melalui DPR, jadi tidak ada fleksibilitas lagi," jelasnya.

"Nah oleh karena itu, satu-satunya cara investasi yang Rp 1.400 triliun, yang ini diperlukan di tahun politik, sehingga betul-betul kita harus ada kepastian hukum dan betul-betul pemerintah ini harus prudent untuk menjalankan kebijakan perekonomian karena investasi tidak juga perlu dibatasi oleh tahun politik," pungkasnya.

Dia juga mengatakan, Perpu Cipta Kerja akan menjamin kesejahteraan para pekerja. Terlebih para pekerja yang terkena PHK bakal diberi jaminan kehilangan pekerjaan sebesar 45 persen dari gaji, serta mendapat pelatihan berupa retraining dan reskilling. Kedua pelatihan itu, kata dia, diberikan selama 6 bulan.

Adapun ihwal penetapan Perpu Cipta Kerja ini, Airlangga menyampaikan bahwa Perpu tersebut merupakan kelanjutan dari UU Cipta Kerja yang diamanatkan MK untuk dilakukan perbaikan hingga November 2023. Perpu Cipta Kerja, kata dia, diterbikan sebagai langkah antisipatis di tengah ketidakpastian situasi global.

“Kita ketahui bahwa saat sekarang ini kan dunia menghadapi ketidakpastian, baik itu dari segi perang yang belum usai, kemudian pengaruh dari climate change dan bencana, kemudian krisis baik itu di sektor pangan, di sektor energi, maupun di sektor keuangan,” ujar Airlangga.