Armies are re-learning how to fight in cities
Urban combat has a brutal, destructive reputation. It will become more common
“The city doesn’t exist any more,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, in April. By then Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, had been under Russian siege for seven weeks—bombed, shelled and struck by rockets. The city fell the next month. Its mayor said that 1,300 high-rise buildings had been destroyed. Satellite images suggested almost half its built-up areas were badly damaged (see map). A pre-war population of over 400,000 had shrunk by more than 75%.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Mean streets”
International August 20th 2022
From the August 20th 2022 edition
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