The Ukrainian troops' mission to tie Russian forces up in the city for as long as possible and kill as many of them as possible in the process - was complete. Ukraine pulled off a similar trick in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, twin cities on either side of the Donets River, during May and June 2022.
Now, perhaps the perfect realisation of these tactics has either just ended, is ongoing but close to ending, or is about to take a new twist. Over the weekend Russia claimed it had fully “liberated” Bakhmut, a town with little practical importance that has been fought over by Ukrainian forces and the pro-Moscow Wagner mercenary group for a staggering 10 months.
The US estimates 100,000 Russian soldiers and mercenaries have been killed or injured in the battle for the town. Wagner’s oligarch leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a man of such moral and physical ugliness that you suspect dairy products spontaneously sour in his presence, posted a video on Saturday claiming to have taken full control of the town. He said Wagner would “completely inspect Bakhmut, create the necessary defence lines” and then leave the city to the Russian military by 25 May.
This story is from the May 23, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the May 23, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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