"Bakhmut is the central point of the Eastern Front and a serious logistics center. And our task here is to kill as little as possible and to destroy the enemy as much as possible.

Bakhmut's specialty is its unique historical and geographical defensive capabilities, which include, first, the city's division into several parts by water barriers.

Second, Bakhmut's surroundings are a complex of settlements that create a single defense system.

The third is a unique landscape, ravines, and heights, which are natural tunnels.

And the cherry on the cake - the system of Soledar and Bakhmut mines, actually the network of underground cities. There is not only an accumulation of people at a depth of 80-100 meters but also tanks and BMPs are moving around. And weapons stocks have been stored since World War I."

Yevhen Prigozhin explained what is unique about Bakhmut and the fighting for the city.


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Podgorodnoye Captured! 🇷🇺🇷🇺

The village of Podgorodnoye(Pidhorodne) near Bakhmut has been captured by the units of the "Wagner "PMC.

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Unconfirmed news comes from many sides that Soledar has fallen. However, the original source withdrew the statement.
We will see...

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👆👆👆
No. Definitely. Someone has been impatient—still lots of work to be done there.

Battle for Soledar: highlights so far

From 30 December to 7 January, AFU units defending Soledar lost at least 500 people killed and wounded.

According to the Military Chronicle, the largest losses were sustained by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th battalions of the 46th Independent Airmobile Brigade of the AFU. In late December, this unit was re-staffed with mobilized from Kirovohrad, Sumy, and Ternopil oblasts. Still, due to a lack of combat training, more than half of the mobilized recruits died six days after arrival at the front.

On 3 January, because of the large number of casualties, the brigade command sent a company of radiation, biological and chemical protection to the first line of defense. Twenty-four hours after its dispatch to the front, the unit stopped communicating and is now considered missing.

Following the front line shift into urban areas towards Lev Tolstogo and Chernyshevskogo streets in the north-east of the city and towards Oktyabrskaya, Naberezhnaya, and Tenistaya streets in the south-east of Soledar, the AFU has faced heavy losses in armored vehicles.

Since late December, the tank battalion of the 61st Army Infantry Brigade of the AFU has suffered the heaviest losses. On the narrow access roads of Soledar, the AFU's T-64BV and T-72M1R tanks cannot actively maneuver and are destroyed by the Kornet and Konkurs PTTRK crews deployed by the Wagner PMC west of Yakovlevka.

In addition to the ATPK crews, T-80BV "reactive" tanks also actively target AFU combat equipment from the dominant heights.

To the south, a section of the road between the village of Blagodatnoye and the northwestern suburbs near Sovetskaya Street has been taken under the fire control of Giacint-B and Giacint-S guns of the Wagner PMCs. Because of this, reinforcements from the 17th AFU Tank Brigade cannot arrive in Soledar. The support of AFU units inside neighborhoods with heavy equipment is complicated not only by fighting in the narrow streets but also by the inability to move new armor and reinforcements quickly.

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Our scouts discovered Ukrainian nationalists and provided timely intelligence to artillerymen near Kremenna.

Video: @evgeniy_lisitsyn

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Fierce fighting in Soledar. Arrival in a trench with the AFU soldiers.

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A little side note: Ukraine is throwing significant reserves in the area of Artemovsk and Soledar. The collapse of the front, if reserves don't do what is expected, seems imminent. It's good for us to engage these forces as well, to spend as much as possible. However, in the end, they may choose to whidraw to more suitable positions to save the combat effectiveness of the remaining troops. I don't know what is better or worse (depends on the point of view), to tie them down or let them pull out. What do you think? Write in the comments.

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A helmet with Nazi symbols was found during the clearance of the bunkers of the Ilyich factory in Mariupol.

The helmet shows an eagle with a swastika resembling the emblem of Nazi Germany. We shall remind you that positions of Ukrainian nationalist battalions were located on the territory of the Ilyich factory for a long time.

There is no Nazism in Ukraine.

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Destroyed Ukrainian BMP, presumably in Svatovo direction.


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🚨 There was an explosion on a main pipeline in Lutuhyno, and about 11,000 subscribers were left without gas - Luhanskgaz


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The situation in Bakhmut is extremely difficult for the AFU, with the soldiers sitting in their basements, afraid to stick their necks out because of the ongoing work of our artillery.

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Regarding those announcements like: "Urgent. UNSC meeting on Ukraine will be held on 13 January".

Nothing urgent or important will take place as both sides have veto power (and due to polar positions, the situation in the UNSC is of a mutually blocking nature. Neither group can expect any resolution that suits it to be vetoed by the other. Therefore, the sides will publicly state their position and disperse. This will not affect the course of the war in any way.

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In Ucraine, the casualties are not discussed publicly, but looking at the rapidly growing cemeteries one can imagine the figures can safely be at 100,000 or more if we add to this number the huge figures on the missing and disabled.
There are fewer and fewer men left willing to go to war, so the Office of the President has to capture men by force to replenish the reserves and do the offensive that Zelensky promised the US in return for a huge military loan. 
There is a huge risk of a revolt within Ukrainian society against the forced mobilisation and trapping of men. 
Many sources point out that such a scenario could happen if the AFU begins to lose and depression begins to grow in society. Bankova has convinced Ukraine is winning, but this track is very destructive if the trend is broken. 
So at this moment Zelensky is sending all reserves into the Bakhmut meat grinder to hold on to the trend, but this leads to great losses.
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Special operations, 7 January. Main: 

▪️ AFU continued artillery shelling on Saturday despite the ceasefire, the Russian Armed Forces were complying with it, the Russian MoD claimed;

▪️ Ukraine's ambassador in London cofessed Ukraine was losing people "left and right" and the figures are "enormous";

▪️ Russian Armed Forces in Donetsk direction thwart enemy attempt to attack Russian positions near Krasnogorovka and Georgievka, enemy losses up to 50 men - Russian MoD;

▪️ The UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine will be held on 13 January, according to the programme of events;

▪️ Zelensky has introduced a decision by Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council on sanctions against 119 Russian cultural figures, including Petrosyan, Galustyan, Kirkorov and Bilan; the list also includes Dmitry Kiselev, director-general of Russia Today, and Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Media Group.

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