JRL NEWSWATCH: “Brutal Battle for Bakhmut Leaves Russia With an Uncertain Victory; Nine months of attrition warfare cost both sides dearly” – WSJ
“The nine-month battle for the small Ukrainian city of Bakhmut effectively came to an end … Sunday, as Russian forces finally captured the last significant Ukrainian strongholds …. Who has won and who has lost isn’t measured, however, in current control over the uninhabitable ruins … left from … a once prosperous city of 70,000 …. The answer will depend on the outcome of Ukraine’s planned offensive — which hinges, in part, on whether Ukrainian or Russian military capacity has been degraded more severely by the war’s bloodiest, and longest, battle. … Ukrainian counterattacks … ensured that a lifeline to Bakhmut remained. … mean[ing] … Russian forces in the past three months have been forced to fight street to street, assaulting one high-rise after another, in grinding urban warfare … disproportionately favor[ing] the defenders. ‘The Russians … kept advancing by simply leveling the city, building by building,’ said a Ukrainian company commander …. The casualty ratio … tilted once again in Ukraine’s favor, to perhaps as high as five-to-one, he said. …”