The madness behind the battle for Bakhmut

“The objective for today is to come back alive.” Yevgeny is a young commando from the “Mad Pack”, a special forces unit that has been fighting in Bakhmut since November. His words are familiar — lacquered with that mix of emotions common to almost all soldiers fighting on the frontlines of war: laughter and unease. We clamber into a Land Cruiser and head toward the city. “The situation is always changing,” he continues. “But one thing remains the same: the line of contact is always active.”

Even by the standards of eastern Ukraine, Bakhmut is a hellscape of destruction. Electricity has been out since August and water since October. Rows of uniform Soviet-style buildings now resemble a series of ragged molars, mottled by shells and blackened with soot…

David Patrikarakos (Project Lead, Unregulated Cyberspace) for UnHerd.

David Patrikarakos

David Patrikarakos is a writer and a journalist, expert on the use of Social Media in Conflict, Disinformation and Middle East Geopolitics. He is the author of War in 140 Characters - how social media is reshaping conflict in the twenty-first century and Nuclear Iran - the birth of an atomic state. Patrikarakos is a non-resident fellow at the University of St. Andrews.

https://twitter.com/dpatrikarakos
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