**Response to @KyivIndependent:**

With this in mind, the capture of Bakhmut, a city on Donetsk Oblast, costly as the fighting may have been, is a necessary stepping stone to then advance on the much larger cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the central hubs of Ukraine’s operations in Donbas.

https://nitter.lacontrevoie.fr/KyivIndependent/status/1633221465385447424#m