Not much information is coming out of the small town of Soledar, about two miles outside the town of Bachmut in eastern Ukraine. But after days of advancing and heavy shelling, in some of the worst fighting since the invasion began, the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner now claims that Russian forces have taken control of large parts of the city.
The information is not confirmed but probable, according to the British Ministry of Defence. If true, it is one of the biggest Russian successes in a long time.
Soledar is an important intermediate goal in Russia’s quest to take control of the larger city of Bachmut, which has now been largely destroyed by Russian bombardment. And life there is hard.
– I sleep in the same clothes I walk in. I haven’t bathed in four months – nothing, says Bachmut resident Ludmila.
See more of the latest from the war in the player above.