Battle of Bakhmut

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The Ukrainian military might decide to pull troops back from the key stronghold of Bakhmut.

Image Courtesy: the guardian.

Battle of Bakhmut

• Bakhmut is a small mining town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
• Bakhmut is currently in ruins, having been the focal point of Russian assaults and a site of dogged defence by the Ukrainian military. 

Importance of Bakhmut: 

• Bakhmut is proximate to multiple important roads which may have some strategic value to the Russian advance. 
• It’s an important transport hub, a lot of supply lines go through there and Russia could use it as a base.
• Beyond its limited strategic value, the town has become a symbol for the war itself, guiding both sides’ unrelenting resolve to control it.

Wagner Group’s political interests

• The Bakhmut operations have been led by the Wagner Group, a shadowy private militia.
  • For Wagner, the campaign at Bakhmut has been of political significance – as a path to gain power and prominence in Moscow. 

Impacts 

• Regardless of the battle’s outcome, Bakhmut remains a grim symbol for the war, where political ambitions, strategic interests, and notions of honour have coalesced to see thousands killed, many more injured, the displacement of millions, and left much of Ukraine in a smouldering, often toxic, wreck.

Source: IE