The stronghold on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk fell on Saturday after almost exactly two years of siege. Vladimir Putin congratulated his troops on their “great victory”. However, its consequences on the wider battlefield are likely to be limited.
Sivierodonetsk. Lisichansk. Marina. Soledar. Bakhmut. In the history of the Ukrainian War, there were many names of cities around which battles raged for months; in the case of Marinkas, Donetsk region, even from February 2022 to December 2023, i.e. 22 months.
Often, especially in Bakhmut, and also in the Donetsk region, such battles were portrayed, especially in the Western media, as fateful and decisive battles, in which a Russian victory would have important consequences for the future course of the war, including the collapse from Ukraine. front in the wider battle region.
None of that happened. After tens of thousands of casualties on both sides, the fronts were always practically paralyzed near these battlefields after the Russian victory there. And the new combat zones that quickly emerged resembled the devastated areas of Flanders and northern France in the trench warfare of the First World War.