Head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force says his troops’ position could be in peril due to a lack of ammunition

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

Ukrainian forces have continued to defend the besieged city of Bakhmut, as the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force said the position of his troops could be in peril because of their lack of ammunition.

The battle for Bakhmut, which is still under Kyiv’s control, has raged for seven months, with thousands of people killed and hundreds of buildings collapsed or charred. The few remaining civilians have been confined to basements for months with no running water, electricity or gas.

Ideas that future conflicts would be economic or fought in cyberspace have been proved wrong

It was Boris Johnson who declared, in November 2021, four months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that “the old concepts of fighting big tank battles on the European landmass … are over”. Today, dozens of destroyed Russian tanks dot Ukraine’s eastern Donbas fields near Vuhledar, smashed, rusting emblems of a traditional heavy warfare that has returned to Europe.

Events have moved fast since Russia invaded last February, but it is worth restating how far planning for conventional war had gone out of fashion before then. Although it was recognised that Russia was a threat, the dominant military thinking was that the goal of authoritarian regimes was “to win without going to war”, as then chief of general staff Sir Nick Carter said in September 2020.