Ukraine: why the town of Soledar has been the subject of “the bloodiest battle” since the start of the war

It is a ruined city located in Donetsk Oblast, lost in eastern Ukraine. Before the war, it had around 12,000 inhabitants, roughly the equivalent of the population of Briançon (Hautes-Alpes), and its salt mines attracted a handful of tourists each year. Since Monday, the Ukrainian locality of Soledar has concentrated intense fighting between the forces of kyiv and the men of Yevgueni Prigojine, the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner. So much so that according to the Ukrainian presidency, it has become the site of the “bloody battle” since the start of the Russian invasion.