How Russia took Bakhmut: 'It's about bleeding the other side'

The meat grinder, hell on earth, the fortress, a blackened nightmare, and now Europe’s Hiroshima.

Bakhmut has been called many things over the course of its nine-and-a-half month siege. Few descriptions capture the scale of loss and destruction. Which side - if any - has come out on top of this costly battle is unclear.

The small eastern city has undoubtedly been the site of the bloodiest fighting since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. It is also the longest battle since the Second World War.

Thousands of men have been sent to their deaths, sucked into what has been called a vortex of savage and relentless fighting.

US intelligence believes Russia has suffered about 100,000 casualties around the city since December last year alone. Some 20,000 of those are thought to have been killed. That is more than half the total number of Russians thought to have died across Ukraine since the invasion began.

#russia #ukraine #war #bakhmut

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