The Strategic Significance of Bakhmut in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

Retired U.S. Army General Mark Hertling has said that Russia is effectively "commanding rubble" in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which Moscow claimed to have "liberated" on Saturday. Hertling argued that the areas Russia was controlling were of "no tactical value," pointing out that Bakhmut had been largely decimated following months of brutal fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed the claim on Sunday, while a Ukrainian armed forces spokesperson said on Monday that a number of buildings in Bakhmut had been retaken.