The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday as Ukrainian forces held out against a furious Russian onslaught in what has become a bloody focal point of the almost 11-month war.
Though unlikely to provide a turning point in the war, Soledar’s fall to the Kremlin’s forces after months of Ukrainian defense would be a battlefield milestone and offer Russian troops a strategic springboard for their efforts to encircle the nearby city of Bakhmut.
