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Ukraine war live updates: Defiant Kyiv says Russia doesn’t control war hot spot Soledar; Zelenskyy says ‘there will be no WWIII’
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
There are conflicting reports about whether the strategically important town of Soledar in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine has been captured by Russian forces.
On Tuesday, the head of the Russian private military company, the Wagner Group, which has been fighting in the area around Soledar and Bakhmut for months, claimed that his fighters had taken “control of the entire territory of Soledar” while urban warfare was continuing.
Soledar is known for its salt mines, and capturing the town would give Russian forces an advantageous location from which to launch more assaults on nearby Bakhmut, capturing which is seen as a key goal for Russia as it looks to seize full control of the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine is being tight-lipped about Soledar’s fate, with one official claiming yesterday that the town was only “semi-surrounded” and another saying that Ukrainian forces were holding out as fighting continued.
‘There will be no World War III,’ Zelenskyy says in surprise Golden Globes speech
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the audience at the 80th Golden Globe awards Tuesday night that his country will stop Russia’s invasion but warned that there are “still battles and tears ahead.”
“There will be no World War III, this is not a trilogy. Ukraine will stop Russian aggression on our land,” Zelenskyy said in a video address to the audience gathered at the famed Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.
Zelenskyy also thanked the support his war-weary country has experienced from partners and allies around the world.
— Amanda Macias