Bakhmut battle lays bare high stakes for both sides in Ukraine war

Whether Russia or Ukraine wins the battle for Bakhmut, heavy casualties mean it will be a Pyrrhic victory. Russians are fighting for a symbol; Ukrainians are fighting for their home.

Leaning against a low wall in the shadow of a building large enough to provide cover from Russian shellfire, Mykhailo sips his tea with calm determination as he and fellow members of his unit await evacuation. For weeks, they have been defending Bakhmut against an intense Russian onslaught in a battle that has come to symbolize the savagery of the war in Ukraine.

Covered in mud and visibly exhausted, none of the men flinch or take cover when a mortar lands uncomfortably close. The fierce battle has subjected nearby towns such as Chasiv Yar, a few miles from the Bakhmut front line, to a constant barrage of tank shells, mortar rounds, and thundering Grad rockets.

“We are holding onto the city, but at what price?” wonders Mykhailo, a member of the Ukrainian army’s 77th brigade who shared only his first name. “The losses are huge. If we keep this city, who will walk in it? Just dogs?”

“The fighting has been hard all along,” says Sergiy, a soldier with honey-colored eyes brimming with tears. The men are in shock. One of their comrades was killed hours earlier in Bakhmut, the latest casualty in a battle that has been as long as it has been brutal, leaving the town almost completely destroyed after 10 months of fighting.