President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week recommitted his forces to defending the eastern city of Bakhmut just as western officials and even some Ukrainian soldiers suggested it might be wiser to pull back.
The battle for Bakhmut, raging for nine months, has become an attritional trap, with Russians and Ukrainians trying to deplete each other’s ranks and gain an advantage for offensives later this spring.
Kyiv claims to have killed thousands of Russian fighters, mainly mercenaries recruited from prisons and ordered to assault Ukrainian positions in human waves reminiscent of the first world war. But Ukraine is taking heavy losses too, potentially changing the cost-benefit assessment of holding on to the city.
