Soledar: the town with a giant underground “secret” with which Russia would control all of Donbas in Ukraine

According to British intelligence, the Kremlin’s military forces, together with the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, have made “important tactical advances” in the area in the last four days and are about to take over this key location for absolute control of Donestk. main region of Donbas.

You want to know more? It’s 2 min.

The context… why Russia is now centered here.

• The devastated city of Bakhmut, in the east of the country, is the administrative center of the region of the same name. It belongs to the Donetsk Oblast, in Donbas.

• Following the invasion of this area in 2014, Russia proclaimed control over more than half of the oblast by the Donetsk People’s Republic.

• However, and despite the continuous claims by the pro-Russians, Bakhmut had resisted until now.

• When Russia started the war against Ukraine in 2022, the region once again became one of the main targets. The Russian military front surrounded the city in May and shelling began. Of the 73,000 inhabitants that the city had, now only less than 20,000 people would remain there.

• Very close to Bajmut, just 10 kilometers away, is the town of Soledar, considered the key to definitively taking over the region.

Because it is important? Why do the Russians want to take over this small town?

• In Soledar is the Artyomsol salt mine, and contains one of the largest underground cities in the world.

• Built in the 19th century, it has 201 kilometers of tunnels, almost 300 meters deep and with ceilings of up to 30 meters.

• Some dimensions that allow inside there to be, for example, a football field, a concert hall or a church.

• From London they affirm that it is “very likely” that the Russian forces will take control of most of Soledar in the next few days, since in the last hours they have made great advances.

• The Kremlin’s interest in this town, according to British intelligence, is that Russia’s strategy is to “try to envelop Bakhmut from the north and thus interrupt the Ukrainian lines of communication.”

• In addition to a strategic interest in the war, the wagner group (who leads the attack on Soledar) wants to use the city’s salt mine as a hideout, since it is a real fortress. There they could hide there safe-zone weaponry, protect themselves from Ukrainian air strikes, and be invisible to satellite radar controls.

Yes, but… Getting hold of this town comes at a high price.

• The founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, the oligarch Yevgen Prizoghin, has recently published a photograph posing with several officials. He uses the image to communicate, according to him, that They have taken control of all of Soledar.

• For its part, the Kremlin does not officially control the area.

• And neither does Ukraine, which claims to continue to resist and is ready to defend the salt mine complex tooth and nail.

• It is true that from kyiv, they recognize the power that the Russian attacks are having in recent days: they calculate that, in a few hours, it has been hit up to 86 times by Russian bombs.

• Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyhas said that “there is almost no life left in Soledar, nor hardly any standing walls (…) The territory that surrounds it is full of corpses of the invaders: that is the image of madness”.

• And it is that Russia’s strategy for the final victory passes, according to a command of the Ukrainian forces that still resist in the area, by achieving small tactical victories at the cost of suffering enormous casualties in their ranks.