Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed his troops had been withstanding “new and even more durable assaults” on the city of Soledar, which has been turned into a wasteland strewn with the bodies of lifeless Russian troops.

 “Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers there, in Soledar, we won supplemental time and (preserved) forces for Ukraine,” Zelensky extra.

 But the combating has also taken a large toll on Ukrainian forces and army officers have acknowledged that Russian fighters have created gains in some parts.

 In which is Soledar?

 Soledar is a salt-mining city situated in the Donetsk location, close to 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Bakhmut.

 Ahead of the war it had a populace of 70,000 but is now the epicenter of the whole war.

 Who controls the city?

 Ukrainian protection officials have stressed that Russian forces do not thoroughly command the city but admit they have innovative in specified places.

 Footage posted on social media on Monday displays Russian troops in the vicinity of the administration making in the middle of the town.

 Earlier on Monday, Russian-backed separatist forces in the Donetsk region stated they captured the village of Bakhmutske, just a couple of kilometers absent from Soledar.

 How fierce is the preventing?

 Previously on Monday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) said they repelled an endeavor to seize Soledar, but that combating had immediately resumed.

 Zelensky claimed “the entire land in Soledar is coated with corpses of the invaders,” including: “Everything is entirely ruined.”

 In a put up on Telegram, Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar, explained Russian troops in the newest attacks were “literally stepping on the corpses of their possess troopers employing massed artillery, MLRS systems and mortars”.

 There has been no formal term on Ukrainian losses for the duration of the defense of the town.

 What has Russia reported about the assaults?

 Russia’s defense ministry did not remark on Monday on the combating in Soledar and technically, it’s not basically the Russian army that the Ukraine is battling there.

 Bakhmut and Soledar are the prized ambitions of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary team, who has explained the preventing is staying carried out “solely” by the group’s units.

 Malyar on Monday appeared to affirm this, stating: “Presently, the enemy has deployed a substantial amount of assault models fashioned from the ideal reserves of the Wagner Team.”

 Why is Prigozhin so obsessed with Soledar?

 Prigozhin himself has claimed that he wishes to seize Bakhmut and Soledar simply because of the strategic option presented by the cavernous salt mines underneath the area which, pre-war, have been made use of to host concert events and sporting occasions.

 “The cherry on the cake is the program of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, which is basically a community of underground towns,” he claimed on Telegram on Saturday.

 “It not only [has the ability to hold] a major team of people today at a depth of 80-100 meters, but tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can also shift about.”

 Prigozhin also claimed the caves maintain huge stockpiles of weapons from Entire world War I but this has been disputed.

 Is he telling the fact?

 Which is up for discussion, and the military advantage of keeping the mines is questionable.

 U.S. officers imagine he’s simply motivated by the potential economic profit of using handle of the mines which would be in line with Wagner’s modus operandi in other conflicts it has participated in.

 The Institute for the Study of War also notes that some Russian milibloggers have questioned the wisdom of losing so quite a few guys in an attritional struggle with Ukraine, indicating that even getting Soledar and Bakhmut would be a strategic defeat in the context of so many losses.

 U.S. officers claimed very last week that out of a pressure of almost 50,000 mercenaries, Wagner has sustained about 4,100 killed and 10,000 wounded in Ukraine. More than 1,000 of all those killed died concerning late November and early December in close proximity to Bakhmut.