Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskky has ordered the army to continue defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, which the Russians have been trying to take over for months. He has also dismissed speculations regarding a possible tactical withdrawal from the area and has reiterated that no part of Ukraine can be abandoned in the hands of Russia. With 70,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion, Bakhmut has become, due to the duration and intensity of fighting and the heavy losses on both sides, the symbol of the military campaign for the control over the industrial region of Donbas. Russian troops have been advancing, in the last few weeks, in the north and south of the city and have interrupted two of the four supply routes of the Ukrainian military. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington DC, ”the Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut remains strategically sound as it continues to consume Russian manpower and equipment as long as Ukrainian forces do not suffer excessive casualties.”
