Russia takes east Bakhmut as Ukraine builds up forces

Ukrainian servicemen who recently returned from the trenches of Bakhmut walk on a street in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Ukrainian troops slowly eased out of their most precarious defences in Bakhmut during the last week of February and the first of March but they did not give up the eastern city to Russian forces.

Ukraine’s tactic was likely to limit its losses while continuing to suck in Russian forces into what now ranks as the war’s longest and most hard-fought battle.