Scars of War: Rebuilding Lives in the Aftermath of the Ukrainian Conflict

The Ukrainian war has resulted in many soldiers being burned and injured, and the fight for their lives continues even after they leave the trenches. The battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest of the war so far, with Western officials estimating between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian troops killed or wounded. The city is now a crumpled, skeletal wreck, and the battle for the last streets of Bakhmut continues. Soldiers on the front in Ukraine adhere to a maxim that grows more sacrosanct the longer they survive: If you want to live, dig. The Ukrainian soldiers fight house to house, room to shot-up room, so close they can hear one another’s cries for help. The fate of the war turns on none of these places, yet each matters.

The fighting in Ukraine transformed into a trench war, with soldiers knee-deep in mud and the two sides facing each other from trenches and ruined buildings across a wasteland churned up by shells.The war has produced its own senseless battles, such as the Russian siege of Bakhmut, a largely ruined town in the east with little apparent strategic significance.