While Moscow is trumpeting a ‘mission accomplished’ moment in its war, Ukraine even as it insists Bakhmut has not completely fallen sees an opening to seize the initiative from the city’s outskirts if Russian forces are no longer pressing forward inside the city’s centre
Russia-Ukraine war: As Moscow claimed Bakhmut has fallen, Ukraine rejected the report. The confusion started on Sunday (21 May) after president Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘appeared to confirm’ that Kyiv has lost the city, only to deny it later
The ‘scorched-earth’ policy usually refers to an army on the retreat destroying anything an attacking enemy force could use – food, water, crops, even land – as a resource. The tactics, used to break the will of an enemy, date back to ancient times