What’s at stake as Ukraine clings to Bakhmut

Ukrainian positions are holding back the Russian push at Bakhmut as both Kyiv and Moscow seem unwilling to give up the city, which has become a symbol of the brutality of the war.

After signaling a possible retreat last week, Ukrainian troops have not yet retreated and are still holding their fortified positions in the city center.

And the Russian troops, trying to encircle the city, put enormous pressure on the Ukrainian troops through constant, persistent attacks.

Bakhmut has turned into ruins, and its once 70,000 inhabitants have almost all disappeared. But neither side is ready to give up the Battle of Bakhmut, which has acquired such a symbolic meaning for both sides that far exceeds its strategic value.

The head of the Russian mercenary group that led the fighting in Bakhmut complained over the weekend about the lack of ammunition and said that a retreat from the city would lead to the collapse of the Russian front line.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters at a press conference in Jordan. on Monday that “both sides are really strongly leaning towards it.”

“I think it’s more of a symbolic value than a strategic and operational one,” Austin said, adding that he didn’t want to discredit the Ukrainian soldiers who were fighting for their lives.

For Ukraine, holding Bakhmut has become a battle cry, signifying Kyiv’s resistance while his soldiers inflict heavy casualties on Russian troops. The defense of Bakhmut could also pave the way for a future counteroffensive.

And for Russia, the capture of Bakhmut will serve as an important sign that they are moving forward in the war after months of failure, even if the city gives them only a small foothold in the Donetsk region to move further west.

Amid intense pressure around Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with his high command on Monday, agreeing to maintain defensive positions in the city. meeting report.

If the Ukrainian commanders do decide on a strategic withdrawal, it will likely be carried out at the most appropriate and favorable time for their forces, said Hein Gumans, director of the Peter D. Watson Center for Conflict and Cooperation at the University of Rochester.

He said that Ukraine is “extremely treacherous” and wants to “swallow the Russian reserves” surrounding Bakhmut.

“This is one way to drain Russian forces,” Goemans said. “They would like the Russians to throw in as many of their troops as possible. … But at the moment it is no longer worth it, they will leave without any questions.”

Institute for the Study of War (ISW) rated on Sunday that Russian forces advanced from the north, east, and south of Bakhmut, although they do not appear to have completely surrounded the Ukrainian defenders in the city center.

According to ISW, in the event of a Ukrainian withdrawal, it is likely to be a gradual retreat aimed at complicating Russia’s advance by building heavy fortifications.

Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analysis, said possession of Bakhmut has allowed Ukraine to crush Russian power, but clinging to the city can be costly.

“Strategies can reach a point of diminishing returns,” Kofman wrote Sunday in Thread on Twitter“and given [Ukraine] trying to conserve resources for the offensive, this may interfere with the success of a more important operation.

Ukraine killed seven Russian soldiers for each of its own, according to the assessment from Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

For Russia, these losses of manpower, as well as ammunition and equipment, mean that it will be difficult for Moscow to continue the offensive operation after the capture of Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, commander of Wagner’s private Russian army, complained over the weekend that ammunition was running low and a representative of his mercenary unit was denied access to Russian military command in Ukraine.

Prigozhin accused the Kremlin of “usual bureaucracy or betrayal”, adding that if Wagner left, the Russian front in Bakhmut would collapse.

“I am knocking on all doors, sounding the alarm with ammunition and reinforcements,” Prigogine wrote on Telegram.

United Kingdom Department of Defense also noted Russia has been forced to deploy 60-year-old battle tanks and even older versions of armored personnel carriers after heavy vehicle losses on the battlefields in eastern Donetsk.

As both sides vie for leverage, fighting in the region has become particularly vicious and reminiscent of World War I, when troops dug trenches only a few dozen feet or less apart.

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Russian forces send waves of soldiers to Ukrainian defenses — often to check where enemy fire is coming from — and then send more troops to take over new positions.

In a speech on Monday, Austin said that if Ukraine changed its stance, he would not see it as an “operational or strategic failure,” adding that he doubted Russia could continue its pressure campaign for much longer.

“What I do see on a daily basis is that the Russians keep bringing in a lot of poorly trained and poorly equipped troops, and those troops are dying very quickly,” the defense minister said. “I think we will continue to see this with the Russians in the future.”

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