On, Bakhmut had been mostly captured by Russian forces, with the Ukrainian military controlling only a small strip of the city proper along the T0504 highway.

By March 2023, Russian forces captured the eastern half of the city, up to the Bakhmutka river, and continued to advance into Ukrainian-controlled parts of Bakhmut. By using repeated assaults composed of former convicts, Wagner troops were able to gradually gain ground, and by February 2023, they captured territory in the north and south of Bakhmut and threatened encirclement, forcing Ukrainian forces to slowly pull out into the city, and the battle turned into fierce urban warfare. By this time, much of the front line had descended into positional trench warfare, with both sides suffering high casualties without any significant advances. Attacks on the city intensified in November 2022 as assaulting Russian forces were reinforced by units redeployed from the Kherson front, together with newly mobilized recruits. Īs of late 2022, following Ukraine's Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives, the Bakhmut– Soledar front became an important focus of the war, being one of the few front lines in Ukraine where Russia remained on the offensive. The main assault force primarily consisted of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, supported by regular Russian troops and reportedly Donetsk People's Republic militia elements. While the shelling of Bakhmut began in May 2022, the main assault towards the city started on 1Īugust after Russian forces advanced from the direction of Popasna following a Ukrainian withdrawal from that front. It is the longest and bloodiest battle of the war so far. The battle of Bakhmut is a major battle taking place in and around the city of Bakhmut between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian Armed Forces during the larger battle for Donbas. Bryansk Oblast military aircraft crashes.Strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure.

Russian tank battles modern day