For the past two days, there has been a lot of talk about the city of Solidar, located in northeastern Ukraine, against which Russia launched its most brutal offensive since the start of a military operation on the territory of a neighbor in February last year.
What is the importance of this region and why is Moscow so focused on it?
On the strategic supply line between the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbass lies Bakhmut, around which Russian forces are fighting fiercely, especially on its southern flank and in the eastern regions.
Britain confirms Russian control of the city
Perhaps the Russian attention is practically focused on “Bakhmut” and not on Solidar, but Russian forces resorted to control of the town through the cities of Kramanorsk and Slavyansk in order to approach Solidar and reach Bakhmut.
Such a move on the ground would put the Ukrainian forces in a very critical situation, because the high hills of Solidar miss all Ukrainian supply lines, as well as lines of communication.
And in the case of his control, it becomes much easier to surround Bakhmut from the north, thus violating the supply routes to Ukraine.
Accordingly, Ukrainian forces announced that their Russian counterparts had bombed Solidar more than 86 times in 24 hours with heavy artillery.
As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said, his troops are fighting the most fierce battles there.
While the head of the Russian private military group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the importance of Solidar lies in the presence of mine tunnels in it, which are tunnels that run underground and can accommodate soldiers and tanks.
Latest developments in the field
In terms of new field developments, the pro-Moscow acting president of Donetsk, Denis Prishilin, said yesterday, Tuesday, that Russian forces had taken control of the center of the city of Solidar in eastern Ukraine and pushed back Ukrainian forces to the rear. west of the city.
Meanwhile, Wagner’s forces controlled the southern suburbs of Solidar, beyond the Red Mountain area.
This comes at a time when fighting is still going on between Wagner forces and the Ukrainian army, to the west of the city, and Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian fighters in the city’s boilers to the west.
In addition, the General Staff of Ukraine released a statement on the situation, which indicated that Russian troops were continuing their offensive operations in the direction of Bakhmut, Avdeev and Liman in an attempt to improve the tactical position in the direction of Kobyan.
She added that the Russians regrouped, recuperated, deployed additional offensive units, changed tactics and launched assaults there.
Russian maneuver in Bakhmut
It also became clear that Russia had deployed a large number of offensive units, consisting of the best reserves of the Wagner group.
It is noteworthy that Solidar is located in the Donetsk region, about 15 kilometers from the city of Bakhmut, which had a population of 70,000 before the war, and now it has become the center of hostilities.
