Ukraine war: Russia controls most of pounded salt mine town, Soledar, says UK - BBC

Russia is "likely" to yet power astir of the salt-mining municipality of Soledar successful Ukraine's eastbound aft a months-long conflict with Ukrainian forces, the UK's Ministry of Defence says.

Russian troops and the mercenary Wagner Group person made advances successful the past 4 days, the UK says.

President Zelensky said determination was "almost nary life" successful Soledar, with "no full walls left".

He besides said "the full onshore adjacent Soledar is covered with the corpses of the occupiers".

"This is what madness looks like," helium added.

Soledar - which had a colonisation of astir 10,000 earlier the warfare - whitethorn beryllium seen chiefly arsenic a stepping chromatic to capturing Bakhmut, and its strategical worth is questionable.

But a US authoritative said past week that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group's founder, wants power of the ample brackish and gypsum mines successful the area.

The UK said portion of the warring had focused connected entrances to the 200km-long disused tunnels and that some Russia and Ukraine "are apt acrophobic that they could beryllium utilized for infiltration down their lines".

Mr Prigozhin has confirmed his involvement successful the mines, calling them "the icing connected the cake" successful the strategical value of the Bakhmut area.

He described them arsenic a "network of underground cities" that tin clasp "a large radical of radical astatine a extent of 80-100 metres", and tin besides let tanks and different subject vehicles to determination freely.

However, Britain believes Russia is "unlikely" to instrumentality Bakhmut itself instantly owed to Ukraine's "stable defence lines".

Meanwhile, a elder subject authoritative from the US Department of Defense said connected Monday determination was a "good portion" of Soledar successful Russian hands.

Fighting astir Bakhmut has been going connected for months, and the US authoritative described the astir caller exchanges arsenic "savage".

Two British nationals have gone missing successful the portion and were past seen heading to Soledar.

In his nightly address, Ukraine's person Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his acknowledgment to soldiers defending Soledar, saying their resilience "won further clip and further spot for Ukraine".

According to a Facebook station by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, soldiers connected Monday repelled attacks adjacent 13 colonisation centres - including Soledar and Bakhmut.

Despite the agelong and aggravated battle, Oleh Zhdanov - a highly respected subject expert successful Ukraine - believes that neither Soledar nor Bakhmut are particularly important from an operational constituent of view.

Mr Zhdanov said successful an interrogation connected Monday with the Ukrainian paper Gazeta that Russia "is trying to beryllium to the full satellite that its service is susceptible of winning".

Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think-tank, has said that Mr Prigozhin "will proceed to usage some confirmed and fabricated Wagner Group occurrence successful Soledar and Bakhmut to beforehand the Wagner Group arsenic the lone Russian unit successful Ukraine susceptible of securing tangible gains".