Satellite images of Soledar and Bakhmut appear online

Maxar, the American aerospace company, has posted satellite images of the cities of Soledar and Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast which the occupiers are currently trying to capture. 

Source: Maxar Technologies on Twitter

Details: The satellite images show that residential buildings and schools are completely destroyed in Soledar. There are thousands of craters from shells along the roads and in fields in Bakhmut.

Soledar, Donetsk Oblast, photo as of 10 January, 2023

Soledar, photo as of 1 August, 2022

Soledar, photo as of 10 January, 2023

Soledar, photo as of 1 August, 2022

Craters from shells in Bakhmut, photo as of 7 January, 2023

Background: 

• On the evening of 9 January, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that "there are almost no intact walls left..." in Soledar, which the occupiers are trying to capture.
• The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company], posted a photo supposedly from a salt mine in Soledar and stated that the entire city was under control of their fighters.
• Nevertheless, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the evening of 11 January that the fighting in Soledar was ongoing, and the occupiers were trying to take the supply routes of the Ukrainian forces under control. 
• Zelenskyy also pointed out in his nightly speech that the fighting in the city was ongoing. 

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