Russian media claims that humanitarian agencies killed civilians and looted in Soledar are based on one “interview” with an alleged Soledar resident, an interview which is not supported by any other evidence. The Donetsk Region police have not documented any criminal actions against residents involving international or Ukrainian volunteers.
Along with active combat operations in Soledar, in the Donetsk Region, Russian media are also conducting massive information attacks, accusing Ukrainian soldiers of mistreating local residents and Ukraine of not providing humanitarian aid or of its poor quality. Another claim is that international humanitarian organizations that provided aid in Soledar were allegedly looting and killing civilians. This claim was made by a local resident: a certain group of people offered to help leaveSoledar, and then “one of the women was found murdered not far away at the exit of the town.” “They were simply looting under the guise of humanitarian aid,” claims an unnamed Soledar resident. He also says that some aid did arrive, but “its quality was worse than animal feed.”
Outrageous Russian media stories such as the “Crucified boy” claim that came out of Slovyansk in 2014 continue to be popular among Russian propagandists. Such is the case with Soledar, where numerous disinformation “news stories” are circulating, in which the sources are unnamed “city residents,” who allegedly shared their complaints with journalists from the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty
The “Soledar resident,” who reported the alleged looting and poor quality humanitarian aid to Argumenty i Fakty, also mentioned Jehovah’s Witnesses, saying they were the ones who brought food that was so awful, it was impossible to eat. Although on the Palyanytsya info platform, which lists various humanitarian and volunteer organizations providing aid throughout Ukraine, Jehova’s Witnesses are not among those listed as working in the region.
Such “interviews” are not accompanied by video or audio or any evidence whatsoever to help verify the location of the claim or the person making these accusations.
Fighting for Soledar intensified by late 2022. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russia has thrown almost all of its main forces in the Donetsk direction and maintains a high offensive intensity. According to the DeepState project for January 16, Russia had success on the western outskirts of Soledar, and the enemy was detected at the railway station. Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Eastern Group, said that as of January 17, the Ukrainian military was in Soledar and fighting the Russian invaders.
According to satellite images from the Maxar company, in the last months of the war, Soledar has been almost completely destroyed. In a January 11 interview, Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk Regional Military Administration chairman, noted that all those who wanted to leave Soledar before fighting intensified could do so under a well-established evacuation scheme with further relocation either within the region or outside it .
“At the moment there are 523 people in Soledar. Some of them decided to leave now, but it is impossible because of the intense hostilities,” Kyrylenko said on TV. He also noted that among the remaining are elderly people who live in basements and shelters, as there is not a single building still standing in the city.
“They have food supplies. Metal stoves, firewood. Everything was stocked up before the new year with reserves. The authorities dealt with the distribution so there are reserves in Soledar. People have old supplies and we distributed more, as we understood that the situation could worsen,” Kyrylenko noted.
Donetsk Military Administration spokeswoman Tatiana Ignatchenko said that on January 13, volunteers were able to evacuate people from Paraskoviivka, a town near Soledar. There is constant fighting near the village, but volunteers managed to evacuate up to a dozen people.
There are no reports on social media of any murders or looting caused by the volunteers, nor are there any such events recorded in the Donetsk Region police reports. On the contrary, the Donetsk Region National Police continues to document the killing of civilians as a result of Russian attacks, and warns that it is the Russian occupants who are looting and stealing vehicles from seized settlements. One of the most recent reports of the killing of Soledar residents by civilians was published by the police in November 2022. Three criminals, locals who tried to flee with a stolen car but were caught by police, were accused of killing a married couple for money. At the moment, they face up to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment, a pre-trial investigation is ongoing. The Donetsk Region police have not documented any reports about the involvement of international or Ukrainian volunteers in criminal actions against Soledar residents.
Volunteers who travel to the battle lines publish video reports of their trips, where you can see how people happily welcome their help. Volunteers themselves constantly risk their lives to help the locals. For example, in January, two Polish volunteers were injured while unloading humanitarian aid near Bakhmut, one of the volunteers had to have her leg amputated. And on January 7, two British volunteers disappeared near Soledar while evacuating civilians. Later, Russian media reported that Wagner Group fighters found one of their bodies.
