In the east, there was a major shift in fighting. If previously, the area to the north of Bakhmut was more or less dormant, then over the last week, the Russians started a series of intense fights in this region as well. And here is why.Initially, the Russians have been putting a lot of effort into developing their offensive operation to the south of Bakhmut. However, they did not pick this direction to exploit some favorable conditions. In fact, attacking it from the south is the most time- and resource-consuming way of taking Bakhmut. By attacking it from the south, the Russians cannot limit Ukrainian supplies, as all the main roads are to the northwest of Bakhmut and out of reach. Encircling Bakhmut from the southwest is a suicide operation because they will be shot in the back from Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka. So, storming Bakhmut from the south only means expending manpower by sending them to storm echeloned defenses.The best way to storm Bakmut is to storm it from the north. By taking the northern part of Bakmut, all supplies will be cut, and the city will be in the operational encirclement. The Russians obviously already tried it, but they encountered one big problem – they were basically being shot in the back from Soledar. So, to take Bakhmut with minimum losses, the Russians first need to establish control over Soledar. But Soledar is an industrial town with a lot of infrastructures that can be fortified and used for defense purposes. Ukrainians also managed to force the Russians to play by their rules, which is why the Russians did not manage to advance even an inch since summer.The best way to storm Soledar is from the northern ground, not the eastern. And that is why the Russians have been devoting a lot of resources lately to taking control over the northern ground. Now, the Ukrainians have been holding the Yakovlivka-Bilohorivka-Berestove line for half a year. The Ukrainians also liberated Spirne last month, which deteriorated Russian tactical positions even more.As of now, the Russians are controlling Berestove, and this is where they have been launching a lot of assaults over the last several days, and this is not good news because if we look at the topographic map, we can see that Berestove is located on the highlands, almost 100 meters above the Ukrainians in Bilohorivka. Nonetheless, the topography is not everything. If we look at the 3D map, we can see that the Ukrainians established their defense along the railways, which are also covered with a lot of trees. That is why the Ukrainians managed to hold their defense for such a long period of time here. This is also the reason why the Russians still conducted most of their attacks from Vasylivka, because this way, they could avoid forest fights.Unfortunately, the latest reports suggest that the Russians managed to get a toehold of the village. Such development shifted the fights a little bit back. Now the Ukrainians are supplying and launching their attack from Vesele, and the Russians are trying to counter these attacks from Berestove. The situation here is very inconvenient for both sides, but even though, locally, it did not change too much, such a small shift of the front line, unfortunately, cost a lot for the Ukrainians.As the front line shifted a little bit back, the Russians gained more room for maneuver, which made it easier for them to storm Yakovlivka. If we go back to the topographic map, we can see that Yakovlivka is the only barrier that prevents the Russians from gaining the high ground to the north of Soledar. By gaining access to this ground, the situation in Soledar may start to deteriorate quickly, and some sources started to suggest that Yakovlivka fell. These are very fresh news and they are coming from the Russian side, so take it with a grain of salt, but the main idea is still the same. These three tiny villages that form a defense triangle is the only thing that is holding Soledar, and Soledar is the only thing that is holding Bakhmut. So far, the Ukrainians managed to hold this line, and the front line shifted back and forth previously as well, which strongly indicates that this defense line will not collapse easily. However, according to my research, the intense series of attacks on Bilohorivka that happened over the last week caused an unfavorable shift of the crucial segment of the front line.