“Bakhmut is holding out against all odds. And although most of the city is destroyed by Russian strikes, our warriors repel constant attempts at Russian offensive there. Soledar is holding out. Although there is even more destruction there and it is extremely hard...” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. He stated further that General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, had “organized the steps necessary to strengthen our defense. In particular, transfer of additional units. And intensification of fire on the invaders.”

The US-based Institute for the Study of War writes that “Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin may be attempting to financially exploit Ukrainian natural resources around Bakhmut.” The ISW quotes him as saying there is a “network of underground cities” inside old mines and that they are holding up the Russian offensive. According to the ISW, Prigozhin “seeks to extract salt and gypsum from mines in the Bakhmut area for monetary gain”.

The former separatist leader in Luhansk Igor Strelkov-Girkin criticized the Russian military command and Yevgeny Prigozhin that even before attacking the Bakhmut-Soledar agglomeration, they knew about the mines, yet they allowed soldiers to be “wasted so skilllessly and fruitlessly”. So that even if “our troops achieve a tactical victory, we have already lost strategically, because we have once again thrown our best forces and resources towards an unworthy goal,” Igor Strelkov-Girkin says.

Germany is not ruling out the delivery of Leopard tanks to the Ukrainian army in future, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Minister of Economy Robert Habeck said in an interview with ARD TV. The comment comes after Germany announced it would be delivering Marder fighting vehicles to Ukraine.