Russia’s ‘cauldron’ tactic may be tipping Donbas battle in its favour

An explosion after a missile strikes a factory in the city of Soledar in the Donbas region. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

After several weeks of deadlock, Russia’s military appears to have found a way to advance in the Donbas – pounding it with such intense, unsophisticated artillery that Ukraine’s exhausted defenders are having to yield.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy rarely gives casualty figures but Ukraine’s president said last Sunday that “50 to 100 Ukrainian troops die on Donbas frontlines each day”, meaning perhaps 3,000 a month in the grisly war of attrition.