Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the landscape around Soledar is covered in Russian corpses. The head of Russia's feared Wagner Group calls neighbouring Bakhmut a 'meat grinder'. So why do the Russians keep coming?
Amid the relentless fighting, and the heavy casualties on both sides, something is missing — a strong rationale from either side as to why so much blood has been spilt over these two small, seemingly unremarkable towns.Writing on the Telegram messaging app, he described Bakhmut as the "central point of the eastern front and a serious logistics centre", though he declined to elaborate on how controlling it would aid Russia's war effort.
The existence of historical weapons in the caves is strongly disputed. And the caves themselves, while occasionally used by Ukrainian soldiers to conduct sneak attacks during the battle for Soledar, are of limited strategic value to any force that controls the entire region. "It seems to me the whole strategic value of Soledar itself is as a means of attack on Bakhmut, which is a slightly more significant town.Charles Miller, a senior lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, said neither Bakhmut nor Soledar provided any particularly strong strategic value for an advancing army.
Since coming under sustained attack, Ukraine has also dug in new defensive positions to the west of the towns, making it difficult for Russia to convert any potential success in Bakhmut and Soledar into a broader breakthrough.Last month, Igor Girkin, a Russian nationalist and former Federal Security Service officer who helped wage the original Donbas war in 2014, said he thought his own side's strategy in Bakhmut was "idiotic".
Walking away from another months-long battle without a win after suffering such heavy losses would beA billboard promoting Russian passports remains standing in Kherson after Ukrainian forces recaptured the city. Similarly, Russia's obsession with taking the towns has made retaining them a key objective for Ukraine — less from a strategic perspective, but more from a symbolic one.hand-delivered a flag signed by soldiers defending Bakhmut to the US Congress in December
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