Whether Bakhmut has fallen or not, Moscow is being pulled deeper into an ever more costly fight for the front-line city as Kyiv readies a major offensive, experts have said.
Russia's claim to have conquered the destroyed city, which Ukraine rejected Sunday, does not mean significant new terrain from which to launch attacks nor harden defenses.
But Moscow has made the eastern city's capture a key aim and has fought the war's longest battle, as well as one of its deadliest, to try to win what it would like to bill as a significant success.