Vessela Dolyna (en ukrainien : Весела Долина) ou Vessiolaïa Dolina (en russe : Весёлая Долина) est une commune rurale de l'oblast de Donetsk, du raïon de Bakhmout et de la communauté territoriale de la ville de Bakhmout, en Ukraine orientale. Sa population sélevait à 277 habitants en 2001.
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Vesela Dolyna is a village in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast of Ukraine, currently under control of the Russian Armed Forces.
On 6 October 2022, the Wagner Group took control over the village, as well as the nearby villages of Odradivka and Zaitseve, as part of their Bakhmut offensive.
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Zaitseve is a village in Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, at about 60.3 kilometres northeast by north from of the centre of Donetsk city, about 4.1 kilometres southwards from the southern border of Bakhmut. It belongs to Bakhmut urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.
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Ivanhrad is a village in Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, at about 65.3 kilometres north-northeast from the centre of Donetsk city, on the southern border of Bakhmut. It belongs to Bakhmut urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.
The village came under attack by Russian forces in 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 11 November 2022, Opytne was captured by DPR and Russian Armed Forces.
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Opytne is a rural settlement in Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, at 64.7 km NNE from the centre of Donetsk city. Since October 2022, it is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.
Opytne was shelled in 2015 During the War in Donbas but no casualties were reported.
On 13 October 2022, the Donetsk People's Republic announced that "troops of the DPR and LPR, with support from the Russian Armed Forces, 'liberated' Opytne and Ivanhrad."
However, Armed Forces of Ukraine did not confirm this claim. On November 11, 2022, a pro-Russian force claimed Opytne was captured by DPR forces.
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The Battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern front, a theatre of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It is regarded by some military analysts to be the bloodiest battle since World War II.
The shelling of Bakhmut began in May 2022, and Russian offensives on the distant approaches to the city began in early July. The main assault towards the city itself started after Russian forces advanced from the direction of Popasna following a Ukrainian withdrawal from that front. The main assault force consisted primarily of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, supported by regular Russian troops and reportedly Donetsk People's Republic militia elements.
In late 2022, following Ukraine's Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives, the Bakhmut–Soledar front became an important focus of the war, being one of the few front lines where Russia remained on the offensive. Attacks on the city intensified in November 2022, as assaulting Russian forces were reinforced by units redeployed from the Kherson front, together with newly mobilized recruits. By this time, much of the front line had descended into positional trench warfare, with both sides suffering high casualties without any significant advances. By using repeated assaults composed of former convicts, Wagner troops were able to gradually gain ground and by February 2023, they captured territory in the north and south of Bakhmut and threatened encirclement. Ukrainian forces began slowly withdrawing deeper into the city and the battle turned into fierce urban warfare. By March 2023, Russian forces captured the eastern half of the city, up to the Bakhmutka river.
By 20 May 2023, Bakhmut had been mostly captured by Russian forces, with the Ukrainian military claiming control of a small strip of the city proper along the T0504 highway. Nonetheless, Ukraine started counterattacks on Russia's flanks, seeking to encircle the city. Around the same time on 25 May, Wagner began withdrawing from the city to be replaced by regular Russian troops, amidst heavy internal squabbles between Wagner leadership and Russian high command.
In September 2023, President Zelensky said Ukraine would continue to fight to retake Bakhmut.
Although initially a target with lesser tactical importance, Bakhmut became one of the central battles of the Russo-Ukrainian War, with it gaining significant symbolic importance for both sides, as President Zelensky declared it to be the "fortress of our morale", and due to the heavy investment of manpower and resources both sides used to control the city. The battle of Bakhmut has been described as a "meat grinder" and a "vortex" for both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries. The intensity of the battle and the high number of casualties suffered by both sides during the fight, alongside the trench and urban warfare, has drawn comparisons to the Battle of Verdun in World War I, as well as to the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. It has been called the most prominent urban battle of the war, with it being reported as the site of "some of the fiercest urban combat in Europe since World War II".