Law, Power, and Justice

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/06/world/europe/russia-offensive-maps.html

After months of pouring soldiers into eastern Ukraine, Russia’s progress essentially adds up to this: three small settlements and part of the city of Bakhmut, a high-profile battlefield with limited strategic value.

Moscow’s inability to gain substantial ground in the Donbas shows how little its offensive has achieved and how much its military has struggled to efficiently capture urban areas throughout the war.

Russia’s grinding advances in Bakhmut have been led by the Wagner private military company, which recruited tens of thousands of convicts from Russian prisons in exchange for the promise of freedom.