Ukraine’s Zelensky Visits Front-Line City of Bakhmut

The visit to Bakhmut shows how Mr. Zelensky has presented himself as a wartime leader close to his soldiers, in contrast with Russian President

Vladimir Putin,

who hasn’t visited his troops in any front-line position since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost 10 months ago. 

During the visit, Mr. Zelensky handed out awards to Ukrainian forces defending the city. While Ukrainian officials have played down the strategic significance of Bakhmut, whose population has dwindled to a fraction of its 70,000 prewar strength, a retreat from the city would signal that Kyiv might be losing the initiative after four months of steady advances. It would also make it harder for Ukraine to pursue offensives in the eastern regions of Donetsk and nearby Luhansk.

For Russia, taking Bakhmut could boost morale after a string of setbacks that have forced Moscow to relinquish about half the Ukrainian territory its forces occupied following the February invasion. 

Since abandoning the southern regional capital of Kherson in November, Russia has redoubled its efforts to seize Bakhmut, after months of Russian assaults on the city that have led to heavy casualties for little territorial gain. By ordering troops to fall back to more easily defensible positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and give up Kherson—the only regional capital that Russia had captured since the start of…