(Reuters) -&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;said its troops were holding out against pro-Moscow forces in the eastern&nbsp;salt&nbsp;mining&nbsp;town&nbsp;of Soledar as more than 500&nbsp;civilians&nbsp;including children were&nbsp;trapped&nbsp;there.
FIGHTING
* The ultra-nationalist contract militia Wagner, run by an ally of Russian President Putin, claims to have taken Soledar after intense fighting that it said had left the&nbsp;town&nbsp;strewn with Ukrainian dead.
* Moscow has held off officially proclaiming victory.
*&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;has acknowledged Russian advances and said fighting was still fierce in Soledar.
* A capture of Soledar, which had a pre-war&nbsp;population 10,000, would be Moscow's most substantial gain since a series of retreats throughout much of the second half of 2022.
* Moscow's February invasion of&nbsp;Ukraine, the biggest land&nbsp;war&nbsp;in Europe since World&nbsp;War&nbsp;Two, has resulted in more than 50,000 reports of alleged&nbsp;war&nbsp;crimes, said&nbsp;Ukraine&rsquo;s top&nbsp;war&nbsp;crimes prosecutor Yuriy Belousov.
* The reports of alleged torture by pro-Moscow forces include electric shocks to genitals and other parts of the body, beatings, various forms of suffocation and sexual violence.
MILITARY
* Kremlin-watchers are examining&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;latest&nbsp;switch of&nbsp;battlefield leadership after Valery Gerasimov, chief of the military's general staff, was unexpectedly given direct command of the invasion.
* Russia could raise the upper age limit for citizens to be conscripted as soon as this spring, a senior lawmaker has said, as part of Moscow's plans to boost the number of Russian troops by 30%.
* The commander of Russian ground forces visited&nbsp;Ukraine's neighbour Belarus to inspect a joint force stationed there.
* For now, northwest&nbsp;Ukraine's border with Belarus is a landscape of burst river banks, thick mud and waterlogged fields, so a Russian assault from there soon seems unlikely.
ECONOMY
* Russian state budget revenue from oil taxes declined in December to 511.7 billion roubles ($7.6 billion), the lowest since March 2021, according to data from the Finance Ministry, following a slide in oil prices.
* Car sales in Russia collapsed by 58.8% in 2022, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said, as the industry reels from the impact of Western sanctions.
&nbsp;
(Compiled by Grant McCool and Michael Perry; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Civilians trapped in battle for salt town