Desperate tactics used by both sides to secure a crucial victory in the city are taking a mental toll on soldiers
At Ukraine’s military academies, they still teach the doctrines of Georgy Zhukov, the celebrated Soviet general, whose victory at Stalingrad reversed the fortunes of the Second World War.
But they are taught about him as an example of what not to do. Given that the focus of the present war in Europe, the Battle of Bakhmut, is being described as Ukraine’s Stalingrad, that is a gamble of which the academies’ recruits are only too aware.
“We are taught many ways of how not to fight,” said Second Lieutenant Roman, an open-faced 23-year-old, freshly commissioned into the Ukrainian army’s 80th brigade. “We aren’t taught so many ways of how we are supposed to do it.”
