Ukrainian infantrymen with the 28th Brigade view damaged buildings while driving to a frontline position facing Russian troops on March 05, 2023 outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine.
John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images
After seven months of fighting over the industrial city of Bakhmut in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, it’s not surprising that neither Ukraine nor Russia want to capitulate over its defense — or capture.
But now it looks increasingly likely that Russia, through the sheer weight of manpower expended on relentless fighting there, particularly by Moscow’s mercenary forces in the Wagner Group, could be gaining the upper hand.
On Wednesday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary forces fighting in Bakhmut (a city that Russia calls “Artemovsk”) said that Wagner had taken full control of the eastern part, according to comments published by Russian state news outlet Tass.
Despite its forces appearing vulnerable to encirclement, Ukraine vowed on Monday to continue defending the city and to send in reinforcements, defying expectations that a tactical withdrawal was in the cards.
Both Russia and Ukraine have thrown masses of personnel into their bids to capture, and defend, Bakhmut, respectively, with both claiming to have inflicted hundreds of losses on each others’ forces on a daily basis.
Aside from atoning for these sacrifices with some kind of victory in Bakhmut, there are several other reasons why both sides have a reason to continue fighting until the bitter end, ranging from the symbolic to the militarily expedient.
Symbolic value
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the decision to defend Bakhmut showed that nowhere in Ukraine would be “abandoned,” an important psychological and symbolic message to Ukrainian fighters that their defense of their country, after a year of fighting, matters.
Still, the merits of fighting on in Bakhmut — a city with a population of around 70,000 and known for its salt mining industry before the war — have…
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