‘Brutal, bloody battles’ Russia’s ‘insane’ fight for Soledar

Ukraine and Russia are locked in an information war as well as a deadly struggle on the ground in Soledar, a salt mining town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, at the end of the 46th week of the war. The Wagner Group’s mercenaries have been fighting to take Soledar for weeks in an apparent effort to encircle Bakhmut, 10km (four miles) to the south, which has been the focus of Russian offensive operations since September. The fighting there, and in Bakhmut, has led to some of the bloodiest battles of the war so far.