Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers found themselves in an operational encirclement in Soledar.

The night before, it became known that the Ukrainian units located on the territory of Soledar received an order to begin an immediate withdrawal of their forces from this city. The Ukrainian troops have only 24 hours to implement the withdrawal - during this time, as expected, reinforced attacks by Ukrainian troops will be launched on Soledar in order to cover the retreat of key forces.

Officially, such information does not appear, however, according to Ukrainian information resources, at about midnight, Ukrainian troops really began to retreat from the territory of the city, withdrawing military equipment and their units. The reason for the withdrawal was the cutting by the Russian military of a key route providing communication with the city, in connection with which further defense in Soledar would not seem expedient.

The loss of Soledar by the Ukrainian troops indicates that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not withstand the unexpected offensive of the Russian troops, as happened earlier in Bakhmut, however, due to the loss of Soledar, the threat also appears for the Ukrainian units stationed in Bakhmut, since in this case the city will be surrounded by 70-75%.