front of ukraine. it is an area where contract soldiers, a private army called the wagner group, is doing the bulk of russia s fighting and they are throwing everything at the town of soledar and bakhmut to try and achieve some immediate gain. we re in a phase of this conflict where they are throwing everything at it, at a huge human cost. and i wouldn t be surprised to see ukraine make some kind of tactical retreat to wait for russian forces to exhaust themselves, if you like. for now, kyiv is adamant the defensive lines are holding and they say the wagner group are putting some of their best soldiers into soledar to try and make more immediate gains. the russians are claiming that it has control, but there are, as ever, conflicting reports in terms of the military significance. i wouldn t place too much on soledar. this is about a propaganda trophy for vladimir putin to present to critics back inside russia. the direction of the war i don t think will be influenced greatly by what we
but there s more rain forecast here for friday and the weekend as the city and those who don t have homes brace for yet more flooding. james clayton, bbc news, san francisco. a russian mercenary group fighting in ukraine claims its found the body of one of two uk aid workers who ve been reported missing. the bbc hasn t been able to verify the claim. 28 year old chris parry, seen here on the left and andrew bagshaw, who s a8, were last seen on friday, reportedly heading to the town of soledar in the east of the country. soledar is the scene of fierce fighting at the moment, along with the neighbouring town of bakhmut. the bbc s james waterhouse, who s in kyiv, gave us his assessment of the situation. the town of soledar and nearby bakhmut a city have become the focal points on the eastern front of ukraine. it is an area where contract soldiers, a private army called the wagner group, is doing the bulk of russia s fighting
translator: is that everything? translator: no, these are the ones who laid down arms. remember i told you they freaked out and laid down arms or whatever they are called. in other words, those where refuse to fight are beingen taken there for training and then to the front line as contract soldiers. this fits in to other intercepts. that s why russia is blanketing the air waves with ads, playing up the war. just watch. translator: participants in this special operation receive many benefits from the government. sasha is happy. he now has the kind of salary he couldn t have dreamed of before, a new profession, new friends, career advancement, free health care for himself and his family, government benefits, also the staturef a combat veteran and therefore respect.
explicitly ruled out the possibility of a mobilisation. he said they have got enough people to fight in ukraine. that is changed. it doesn t seem they have enough people to fight in ukraine. seem they have enough people to fight in ukraine. these flights that we are seeing. fight in ukraine. these flights that we are seeing, these fight in ukraine. these flights that we are seeing, these queues - fight in ukraine. these flights that we are seeing, these queues to i fight in ukraine. these flights that l we are seeing, these queues to get out of russia, it is not easy to verify what is going on, but it does look like some people are worried. they are worried because what is happening now, this call up, it means the end of a very long social contract in russia for more than 20 years, when president putin has been in charge. the contract was that it is contract soldiers who are paid to do the fighting, they will fight on the kremlin s behalf, ordinary citizens are free to go about th
jill dougherty is an adjunct professor at georgetown you ve, a cnn contributor and former cnn mo moscow. up to 80,000 russian troops have been killed or wounded. you can t cover those numbers up forever. is the increasing body count getting through to people? what would happen if more russians knew how bad things are going in ukraine? you know, it s complicated, because you have to look at who is serving and who is dying. because i think the impression that a lot of people have is, you know, it s regular russian boys. well, some of them are. but a lot of them are what russians call contract soldiers. so these are really people who volunteered to serve. they get paid. they have contracts. and that s one group. and then also don t forget some of the people who are serving are from very poor areas of russia, places you may not have