Russia’s main onslaught had begun in August, and had grown in intensity ever since. This was both close-contact shooting and trench warfare, as in early-20th-century conflicts. Artillery duels to the south-east of the city often prevented advance or retreat. Into this inferno the Russians, headed by the mercenaries of the Wagner group, threw all the troops they could, most of them new conscripts. They died in such numbers that Bakhmut was called “the meat-grinder”.
Several times they had been ordered by the government to leave. By February, almost all had. From a city of 70,000 people, around 5,000 remained. They were rarely spotted, on the dash to a rare open shop or to the lifeline of the mobile food vans, scooping water from streams, or cooking over firewood outside their shattered homes. They spent most of their time in “invincibility centres”, buildings with sandbagged windows and wood stoves, huddling to recharge their phones.
In 2014 pro-Russian separatists from the Donetsk People’s Republic took over parts of the city. After Ukrainian forces drove them out later that year, Lenin’s statue came down and the Soviet street-names were changed: Bakhmut was Bakhmut again. Yet its identity was still fluid. Two-thirds of the citizens thought of themselves as Ukrainians, but most had Russian as their first language. What they spoke was a blend of the two. Many had family in Russia, or business connections.
The city was not especially strategic, either. Two main roads crossed there, but it was not a logistics hub of any size. It opened the way, if Russia won it, to bigger cities in the Donbas; yet there were other routes. The Soledar salt mines were vast enough to run tanks and armoured cars around in, and for troops to infiltrate for miles underground; there were myths, too, of great stockpiles of weapons there. But mines could be blockaded from outside.
If Putin can’t have it, he will destroy it - this evil must stop
Morally reprehensible to turn towns & villages into fortified holding positions. Kiev's position on the lowest rung of ethics is rock solid to anyone who hasn't drunk ALL the Empire of Lies koolaid since 2014 another meddled kick-start of conflict vomit
yes because it’s being besieged
the siege of bakhmut was very important for both sides. The Russian siege was their final card, going to take bakhmut and then progress to larger cities. By containing the fight in bakhmut the Ukrainians defeated the last hope the Russians had of expanding further.
It must have quite a demoralising effect on ukrainian troops when you are told to hold ground at any cost only to be told it was just symbolic when you retreat leaving behind the bodies of your friends.
All those dead people, so wrong
No no no. Its importance is as simple as “kill the enemy”, as much as you can.
We are watching and preparing as the days go by. 💥💥💥💥
I read Bhaktmukt
Its a way to grind a dumb enemy while preparing an offensive elsewhere.
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