Ukraine chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, made a comparison of the fighting for the Bakhmut area to the World War I battle of Verdun.
Soledar is a small salt-mining town in the Bakhmut region of the Donetsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine. At the time of the Russian invasion, it had a population of just 10,000. But the area has been decimated by the war. And most of the residents have fled.
Most of the buildings have been leveled by rocket strikes.
During his nightly address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignored Russia’s claims of victory.
He said that “The whole land near Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers … This is what madness looks like.”
“The tough battle for Donetsk region continues, the battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages in the east of our country continues.”
“Although the enemy has concentrated its greatest forces in this direction, our troops – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defense and security forces – are defending the state.”
