The Devastation of Urban Areas in Ukraine
By Jacob Weaver
-Junior Fellow, Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has been covered less and less in the United States. This is inversely related to the death, destruction and suffering of the Ukrainian people. As the war is getting closer to three years old it is important to consolidate and review major battles that have made this war significant. Two of the biggest and most destructive battles were for Mariupol in the early months of the war, and Bakhmut in late 2022 and early 2023. These battles were unmatched when it came to urban warfare and casualties. Both cities have been reduced to rubble from shelling and air strikes. Both of these cities are currently under Russian occupation, but these victories came at an extremely high cost. Not to mention the suffering of innocent civilians who were caught in the crossfire, or the thousands who fled west to safer ground.
To understand these battles we must understand the Russian doctrine of war. Russian strategy is not dissimilar to that of Soviet era strategy. It is called deep battle and relies on fast moving mechanized units to brute force through enemy lines and encircle larger units. Part of this doctrine involves evading urban areas entirely, however when urban areas have to be taken the same doctrine of brute force is utilized. This results in extremely high casualties and a mind boggling amount of ordinance being dropped on urban areas. Most of which being artillery but airstrikes are used if they are available. This indiscriminate bombing essentially makes it so that the defenders have nothing to defend anymore and gradually demoralizes them, at least in theory. Infantry units must go house by house, room by room to clear out defenders resulting in battles taking months with high casualty figures. Examples of this happening in the war are of course Mariupol and Bakhmut but also can be seen throughout recent history.
Although Ukraine is the most recent example of this brutal form of combat it is certainly not new. A historical example of this type of savage fighting was the battle for Grozny in the Chechen wars. The state of Chechnya in southern Russia declared independence in 1991 and a few years later in 1994 the Russians invaded. During the initial invasion Russian artillery fired 4000 shells per hour into Grozny. Civilians were forced to flee, hide or take up arms to fight.
It only took the Russian soldiers three weeks to take the city but at the cost of 15,000 men. These numbers are unheard of when it comes to American or western military engagements. This shows the overall disinterest in human life that forms Russian military strategy. Grozny is a good example of the advantage defenders have in an urban area. It is also very similar to the battle of Bakhmut in Ukraine.
The battle of Bakhmut has been the bloodiest engagement of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The small salt mining city of 70,000 people has been reduced to nothing but rubble and ash. Battles around Bakhmut have been occurring since summer 2022. These battles grew fiercer as they grew closer to Bakhmut itself. Most of these engagements occurred in trenches, eerily reminiscent of those from the first world war. A lot of these battles involved the Wagner PMC, a private military company headed by Yevgony Prighozin also known as Putin’s Chef. Wagner has done a lot of work in Africa and Syria within the past 10-15 years giving them valuable experience in combat. During the war in Ukraine, Wagner recruited 40,000 prisoners to be used as shock troops. These prisoners often were not given any significant training and were essentially used more like cannon fodder. These prisoner units would run up to Ukrainian positions and attempt to gain a foothold, if this was achieved then the real Wagner mercenaries, the ones with experience in Syria and Africa, would come in and secure the area. This strategy resulted in astronomically high casualties for the Wagner PMC, but slowly gained them ground. The artillery usage was similar to Grozny with thousands of shells being fired an hour resulting in the complete destruction of the city. Eventually on May 20, 2023, Bakhmut officially fell to the Russian forces. This is all to say that the battle of Bakhmut was absolutely devastating for both sides and again shows the Russians complete disregard for human life on either side. In fact the fighting was so brutal and barbaric that both sides refer to it as the meat grinder. For how terrible the battle for Bakhmut was there were significantly less civilians in the crossfire as compared to Mariupol.
The battle for Mariupol was the first major urban battle in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Mariupol sits on the southeastern coast of Ukraine and is a major port city. It is also very close to mainland Russia when in comparison to other areas of Ukraine. In 2014 during the war in Donbas, Mariupol was briefly contested but held on to by the Azov group from Ukraine. The city remained in Ukrainian hands up until March 2, 2022, when Russian units began besieging the city. Over 450.000 civilians were stuck in the city, this is in stark contrast to Bakhmut where around 90% of civilians fled leading to an almost entirely military engagement. From the start of March to mid May 2022, the Ukrainians held their ground house by house in the city. The battle culminated in the Azovstal steel plant which was held by the same Azov units who held the city eight years beforehand. Civilians were also in the steel plant relying on the Ukrainians for defense, food and water. By the end of the battle thousands of civilians were killed or injured. One of the most egregious acts carried out by the Russians in this whole war was the bombing of the Mariupol drama theater. The theater became a bunker of sorts for civilians hoping to escape the artillery and airstrikes. The theater housed hundreds of civilians, predominantly women and children. They even painted the word children in the parking lot so that airplanes would not target them. On March 16, 2022, the theater was struck by two bombs dropped from a Russian war plane. Fifteen innocent non-combatants were killed in the strike. During the battle for Mariupol over nineteen hospitals were targeted by Russian forces. These attacks resulted in loss of power in hospitals making it near impossible to perform surgeries or normal medical procedures. In the end there are over five mass graves inside Mariupol containing over 10,000 people, although not all of these are civilians. The battle for Mariupol set a very bleak tone for the war to come, especially when it comes to urban engagements.
The war in Ukraine is getting increasingly violent and catastrophic, especially in urban settings. This is primarily due to the Russians tendency to completely disregard the value of life for either side. Whether it be the Wagner prisoners or the citizens of Mariupol, time and time again the Russians have shown that they do not value human life to any capacity. This is the exact reason the war in Ukraine matters, it is a fight for the very existence of the Ukrainian state and people.
References
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-updates?ref=upstract.com
https://www.hrw.org/feature/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/bakhmut-before-after-satellite-images-russia-ukraine-war-2355818
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1935&context=parameters
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/azovstal-steel-plant
https://nypost.com/2022/11/28/ukraine-locked-in-trench-warfare-in-bakhmut/
