the-'battle-for-bakhmut'-is-considered-the-most-brutal-fight-of-the-war-in-ukraine-so-far

The campaign for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is shaping up to be the most brutal battle yet in the country’s ongoing war against the invading Russian army.

Front-line photos released this week by the Ukrainian government revealed soldiers crouching in a bleak, charred landscape reminiscent of World War I death camps, due to Russian bombing in the ancient city of 70,000 population.

As winter approaches in Eastern Europe, Ukrainian forces have made their home in muddy trenches dug into a patch of bald and splintered trees.

A video from the city shows a community in ruins, l The streets littered with mud and rubble against a backdrop of burned-out buildings and broken windows.

And in the same trenches, the soldiers remain in miserable and overcrowded conditions, with photos from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine showing infantrymen advancing through inches of water in increasingly hostile weather conditions.

The battle for Bakhmut remains a game of metres, if not inches, with both sides unable to move against the risk of near-certain death from lack of cover.

Several residents who have stayed have died in recent days, while more than a dozen have been injured. Both sides have suffered hundreds of casualties between open trench warfare and the intense urban combat that has come to define the months-long battle.

Russian forces have begun to make some progress in recent weeks after months of constant attacks on the line from the Ukrainian front in Bakhmut.

The Russian army has continued to send reinforcements in a bid to take the city after a series of military defeats in disputed regions such as Kherson, which was liberated by Ukrainian forces earlier this month.

However, some speculate that the Russians are exaggerating their progress in taking the city out of a desire to regain some composure amid widespread reports of weakened morale among front-line soldiers.

Bakhmut itself has little strategic value beyond its role as a hub for roads and railways, according to news reports, and The Guardian postulates in a recent report that it rejuvenated the efforts of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group that includes pardoned criminals and others among its ranks.

That report said that the recent fighting owed “more to Wagner’s prestige in inner Kremlin circles than to any joint military thinking.”

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By Scribe