Video | How does controlling Bakhmut and Soledar influence the war in Ukraine and Russia?

On December 20, while Volodimir Zelensky was visiting the Ukrainian troops on the Bakhmut front, the explosions did not stop ringing nearby.

They sounded while the president addressed the soldiers, when he attended to the press and when they all observed a minute's silence for those who had fallen in combat.

And it is that these days, as can be seen and heard in the video that accompanies this news, the explosions never stop sounding in the small city that has become the epicenter of Russia's war in the neighboring country.

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Putin's forces have been laying siege to Bakhmut for months.

This enclave of the Donetsk province became one of his targets after the capture of Lugansk in July.

To continue advancing in the conquest of Donbas, towards towns like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, their troops have to pass through there first, and with the help of the private Wagner group, they are not hesitating to sacrifice as many combatants as necessary to do so.

In the video, two experts in military strategy discuss the strategic value that Bakhmut and neighboring Soledar have for Russia and Ukraine in the war.

They are Félix Arteaga, principal investigator of the Elcano Royal Institute, and Christian D. Villanueva, director of the magazine

.

A justified sacrifice?

Both consider that the strategic value does not justify a priori the material and human effort that the sides are putting into Bajmut.

“They have been months without getting anything, and even if they were able to occupy it, they would see that from then on there is nothing,” says Arteaga.

“Ukraine is not going to withdraw 50 kilometers to the west, even if it lost, it would only withdraw a few kilometers,” points out Villanueva, who also points to the other side: “Even within the Ukrainian armed forces themselves there are voices against holding on at all costs ”.

In this video you will find:

• Interview with

  Félix Arteaga

  , principal investigator of the Elcano Royal Institute.

• Interview with

  Christian D. Villanueva

  , director of the magazine

  Ejércitos

  .

• Maps

  of the Bakhmut and Donbas fronts.

• Images of the

  fighting

  in Bajmut and Soledar in the last month.