Does loveless ancient city have Southern ruins? (8)
I believe the answer is:
destroys
'ruins?' is the definition.
(to destroy is to ruin or break)
'does loveless ancient city have southern' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'city' could be 'troy' (Troy is an example) and 'troy' is present in the answer.
'southern' could be 's' (abbreviation) and 's' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'des' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for destroys that I've seen before include "Puts down" , "Spoils completely, perhaps kills" , "Demolishes, ruins" , "Ruins or bankrupts" , "Spoils or breaks completely" .)