“There is already fighting on the outskirts and in neighborhoods that were recently under enemy control,” he said.
The area around Bakhmut has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the 11-month war, so its fate has high symbolic significance for both Russia and Ukraine, even though Western military analysts say the town, which had a pre-war population of approx. 70,000, has little strategic importance.
Russia said earlier this month it had captured Soledar in the northeast and Klishchevka in the south, for which Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group claimed credit.
The RIA news agency quoted Pushilin as saying that the taking of Soledor had made it possible to block Ukrainian supply routes and control some areas, from where Ukrainian forces were launching “retaliatory operations”.