Russia is hurling troops at the tiny Ukrainian town of Bakhmut
But the battle is bloody and pointless
LIKE MANY places in eastern Europe, Bakhmut bears the scars of history. In the 18th century Cossack rebels seized the town and held it for three years. In 1919 it was contested in the Russian civil war. In 1942 Nazis killed 3,000 Jews in Artyomovsk, as the town was then known. And it slipped briefly into the hands of separatists when Russia fomented a war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, before being recaptured. Now the latest struggle for Bakhmut is turning into one of the bloodiest battles of the current war.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The battle for Bakhmut”
Europe December 10th 2022
- Germany’s ruling coalition marks its first anniversary
- German police arrest two dozen alleged conspirators in a hare-brained plot to overthrow the government
- Russia is hurling troops at the tiny Ukrainian town of Bakhmut
- In Moscow, all dissent is muzzled
- Ukraine is using foreign tech to mitigate Russian destruction
- Why the French are mangling their own language
- Europe is grappling with its dodgy memorials, a plinth at a time
From the December 10th 2022 edition
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