• Russian forces used a tank to blast their way into a building in the war-torn city of Bakhmut.
  • Ukrainian troops in the building left and blew it up to trap them, The New York Times reported. 
  • This urban combat scene echoes the devastating World War II battle of Stalingrad.

A Ukrainian commander said that his troops blew up their own building in Bakhmut to trap Russian soldiers who had forced their way inside, fighting with them room to room. The incident highlights the brutal nature of the grinding house-to-house fight for the war-torn city.   

Col. Pavlo Palisa, the commander of the front-line 93rd Mechanized Brigade, described situations of intense urban combat during a recent interview with The New York Times. He said in one instance, Russian troops used a tank to blast through the walls of an apartment building held by Kyiv's forces. 

The Russians then made their way into the building, and the fight went from room to room, Palisa said, adding that the apartment block was held by soldiers on both sides. He told the Times the Ukrainians placed explosives around the building, quickly left, and the blew up the apartment while the Russians were still inside. 

Intense, close-range firefights are a regular occurrence happening multiple times a day, Palisa said. Other Ukrainian troops told the Times that they sometimes find themselves so close to Russian soldiers that they can hear them talking in buildings close by and that fighting has taken place across abandoned buildings and basements. 

Drone view of Bakhmut, Ukraine
Drone footage shows destruction of Bakhmut, Ukraine.
ADAM TACTIC GROUP

The battle for Bakhmut, a city with a pre-war population of over 73,000 people in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, is a horrific affair that has lasted for months and cost thousands of lives. It is the longest and bloodiest contest of Russia's war and it regularly draws comparisons to World War II's Battle of Stalingrad. 

A case study by the Modern War Institute details the costly block-by-block fighting waged by the Soviet Union and the German army during the five-month-long battle over Stalingrad. John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, and Maj. Jayson Geroux, an infantry officer in the Canadian Army, described the fight as featuring "some of the most high-intensity urban combat in history."  

"Buildings and floors within Stalingrad changed hands dozens of times, and sometimes platoons and companies took several days and up to 90 and even 100 percent casualties just to win a building or a floor within it," the duo wrote in their 2021 study. "Entire battles were fought over single buildings or complexes with names like the Martenovskii Shop, Pavlov's House, the grain elevator, and the Commissar's House."

Captured German soldiers, make their way in the bitter cold through the ruins of Stalingrad, Russia, in 1943.
Captured German soldiers, make their way in the bitter cold through the ruins of Stalingrad, Russia, in 1943.
AP Photo/hpr, File

Both Ukraine and Russia have suffered heavy losses while fighting for Bakhmut, which holds limited strategic value. For this reason, Ukrainian partners, including some in Washington, have suggested that Kyiv divert its attention and firepower elsewhere. 

"They've taken a lot of casualties. They've expended a lot of ammunition," Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corporation think tank, said of both militaries' fight for Bakhmut during a recent symposium. "It's like becoming like a Stalingrad except for without the importance of Stalingrad."

Leaked Pentagon documents have revealed that Ukraine's defense of Bakhmut was in a fragile and perilous position during the final days of February, with its forces nearly encircled. To try and get the situation under control, Kyiv's military intelligence chief ordered the short deployment of an elite unit, making a rather bold gamble at a dangerous time.

Ukraine continues to resist, and Russia has so far been unable to fully capture the city. But as of this week, Moscow's troops occupied over 76 percent of the battered town, according to a terrain assessment from the Institute for the Study of War.