"Even for those who witnessed the battle for Bakhmut, the longest and likely the deadliest clash of the war in Ukraine, words often failed. Soldiers who fought in the shell-racked city strained to articulate the carnage. The reek of the trenches around the city and the unceasing howl of shellfire, they said, recalled the Battle of Verdun in 1916, which lasted 300 days and was one of the bloodiest of World War I. By the time the Russians declared ‘victory’ on Saturday, relentless bombardment had turned former shops and homes to charred ruins. As Ukraine shifted focus to the fighting on the outskirts, President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the city was gone, saying ‘Bakhmut is only in our hearts.’ It was an arc of destruction captured by photographers from The New York Times over the past year. ...”
Ukrainian soldiers riding on an armored vehicle in Bakhmut in November.
