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A city destroyed Russia says it controls Ukraine’s Chasiv Yar after 16 months of fighting. But the battle grinds on, and only ruins remain.

Source: Meduza

On July 31, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that its forces had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut. The Ukrainian Armed Forces denied Russia’s claim. However, while Ukrainian troops still technically hold parts of the city’s western and southern outskirts, the situation on neighboring sections of the front has made further fighting for this “natural fortress” — perched on the elevated hills of the Donets Ridge — effectively pointless. Under attack from multiple directions, Ukrainian units are slowly retreating toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. It’s been 16 months since the assault on Chasiv Yar began, and the city has been reduced to near-total ruin. Meduza shares photos of what remains. All of these drone photos were taken on July 24, 2025 — one week before Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have captured the city.

Like many cities in the Donetsk region, Chasiv Yar was built around a single factory: a refractory plant that processed clay from a deposit on the city’s northern outskirts into construction materials. The plant, located in the center of town, sat atop the highest hill in the area, overlooking Bakhmut to the east and Kostiantynivka to the west. The conventional wisdom has been that if Russian forces captured the city, it could open a path into the northern part of Donbas.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Wagner Group forces reached Chasiv Yar back in 2023, but the Russian army units that replaced Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries were pushed back from the city by a Ukrainian counteroffensive. The assault on the city didn’t begin until the spring of 2024. By then, Ukrainian troops had turned the city’s high-rise buildings, the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas Canal on the city’s western edge, the surrounding forests, and the factory into a heavily fortified defensive zone.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
It’s Chasiv Yar’s geography that’s made it so important in the current war. Even during the battle for Bakhmut, some Western analysts were urging Ukraine’s military to fall back to Chasiv Yar, calling it a natural fortress. In their assault, Russian forces first had to cross the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal, then climb uphill to attack residential blocks and industrial buildings. After that, they stormed the neighborhoods scattered throughout the surrounding forests.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
It quickly became clear that Russian forces wouldn’t be able to break through the city. After that, both the Russian and Ukrainian commands began to lose interest in Chasiv Yar. Starting in the fall of 2024, the area became a source of reserve forces for other parts of the front. Many units on both sides were redeployed to Russia’s Kursk region. Still, the fight for the city continued.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Last winter, Russian forces captured the train station in the northern part of the city but failed to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the surrounding high-rises. Despite supply challenges, Ukrainian forces continued to hold their positions on the outskirts of Chasiv Yar.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
The city’s fall came as a result of the Russian army’s advance on nearby sections of the front. Ukrainian units were forced to retreat from the basements of ruined buildings toward Kostiantynivka. Russian forces took control of the city center and most of the southern Shevchenko neighborhood, though pockets of Ukrainian resistance remain there. Now Chasiv Yar will serve as one of the staging points for a Russian push northward — towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
By the end of 2024, Russian forces had captured the Refractory Plant at the highest point in the city. After that, they spent several months fighting for control of the high-rise buildings near the Dniprovskyi Pond and in other scattered neighborhoods across the city’s hills.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
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