Six weeks after coming to help defend Bakhmut, the men of the Adam Tactical Group, one of Ukraine’s most effective battle units, were quietly confident they had turned the tide against Russian troops trying to encircle and capture it. “The enemy exhausted all its reserves,” the commander, Col. Yevhen Mezhevikin, 40, said on Tuesday, straddling a chair as artillery, air defense and intelligence-gathering teams worked around him.
But now, Colonel Mezhevikin said, the Russian assaults have slowed and the imminent threat of encirclement has been thwarted. “The density of assaults dropped by several times,” he said. “Before, they could assault in all directions simultaneously and in groups of not less than 20, 30 or 40 people, but gradually it is dying down.”
The commander’s description aligned with those of Ukraine’s most senior military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhnyi, and his commander of ground forces in the east, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky. Both have said in recent days that the situation of Bakhmut was stabilizing, even with heavy fighting for some Ukrainian units.
On the city’s northern and southern flanks, where Russian troops had tried to encircle Bakhmut in a pincers movement, the Russians were coming up against Ukraine’s most motivated units and no longer had momentum, he said. “When they try to reinforce their units, to rotate, they are being destroyed at the very start,” he added.
The center of Bakhmut, however, remained a hot spot where Russian troops were still attacking with significant force, the commander said: “All that’s left for them is to try to advance through the city, because the buildings protect them from fire.”
Serhii Filimonov, the commander of an assault company on the northern flank of the city... The Russians had meanwhile stalled, he said, concurring with the commander of the Adam Tactical Group. “Now they stopped,” Mr. Filimonov said. “We have a strong line. But we need a strong counterattack.”
As some other commanders have noted, there are weaknesses and gaps in the Russian defenses. “The same way they can encircle us, they can also be encircled by us if we pierce their defense at any place,” Mr. Filimonov said.
The Russians realize the danger themselves, he said, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military company, which is doing much of the fighting at Bakhmut, publicly warned of the danger in a video post as he called for more military support for his own forces. “If Wagner PMC rolls back, then the following situation will happen in history,” he said in early March. “It is clear that the front will crumble. The front will crumble to the Russian borders, or maybe further.”
Colonel Mezhevikin said there were still strong Russian divisions guarding the critical points of defense but that regular Russian army units lacked morale and were easier to break. “It’s easier to fight them. They are running away,” he said. But Wagner units, which include convicts, were threatened with physical punishment if they retreated, which made them tougher opponents, he said. “They are scared to give up and to leave positions,” he explained. “They prefer to die here.”
You're unironically using the New York Times as a source?
There's a few people here who will use the most retarded sources when it agrees with them. One of our resident TDS sufferers was recently quoting anonymous sources in the Washington Post. *facepalm*
It might be hard to believe but they still do actual news reporting outside of US domestic politics.
Yeah, it is pretty hard to believe. More likely you'll just post anything that satisfies your baffling Russia hate boner.
I don't hate Russia. If the Russians stopped this foolish anti-Western course of action and decided to join the West and abide by international norms, I'd welcome them with open arms.
But if they fuck around with wars of imperial conquest, I'm happy for them to find out.
Kneel before blacks, have drag queen story hour and rainbow flags?
Like invading Iraq, bombing Yugoslavia to smithereens and threatening the Solomon Islands? Or blowing up the pipelines of a nominal ally (but actually an occupied country)? Those your 'international norms'?
The 'rules-based international order' is one where the US makes the rules and gives out the orders.
Poland and Hungary don't do that.
Florida and Texas and Tennessee and soon to be more than half the United States don't do that.
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan don't do that.
The whole muslim world doesn't do that, and nobody fucks with them (the vast majority of muslim countries haven't been bombed) unless they do terrorist shit. (basically just Afghanistan, Yemen)
There is much room in the world to be part of the global community without kneeling to blacks and LGBTs.
So obviously there was no requirement to invade Iraq and the vast majority of countries didn't join.
Serbia was only bombed by NATO at the behest of Western Euros, so again, the vast majority of the global community stayed out of it.
Nobody threatened the Solomon Islands and it's weird for you to bring that up since it's a CCP expansionist thing.
Nope, international norms are things like don't engage in empire building & follow fair trade rules. Culture is completely excluded as there are many cultures which shit all over LGBTs and yet have free trade with the US and EU.
That would be nice but is not the reality. If the US was giving the orders, why does China dominate the UN & take control of the WHO & the UN Human Rights Council?
The EU is bullying both countries to do that as we speak. After the current government will come the deluge of degeneracy. I love Poland and Hungary, but I'm not sure how much longer they can hold out.
In Egypt, the US was supporting "democracy" and the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood, under which homosexuality spread like wildfire. They got mad when their beloved Morsi was ousted.
Also:
(I'm not saying I support this, but it's obvious what the US is pushing.)
The US recently threatened sanctions against Uganda for not worshiping homosexuality. It uses its power to push BLM and the rainbow cult. "If we're committing national suicide, so will you!"
The international norms, which you were hypocritically citing, hold that you can't attack another country without permission from the UN Security Council. Of course, you don't care, because you make the rules and give the orders.
So NATO is an aggressive alliance that launches unprovoked airstrikes on other people. And you wonder why Russia doesn't want that on his doorstep.
The US would not even rule out an invasion if China established a military base there, right at the time it was saying that countries are free to choose their alliance. You're only free to choose to be a US vassal and get your pipelines blown up.
By that standard, the US' empire-building in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yugoslavia would exclude it from these """norms""". Your ally Turkey has been occupying half of Cyprus for over half a century. Not a peep from you. Your ally Azerbaijan has been carrying out a genocidal campaign against Armenia, funded by the EU.
Of course, these norms only exist for opponents of the US.
Because we both know the UN is irrelevant and has no power.
You have far too much faith in the nobility of your ruling classes (even though you say you hate Biden) and the military-industrial complex.
Good grief you are such a boomer.
Not a boomer, technically I'd be a Millennial.
Boomer is a state of mind, friend.
Bethca...yup, dekachin post.
Let's see who the guy in the title is, whom the US propaganda media is citing:
Here's what he said at the beginning of March:
So he's saying the exact same thing, and this is 'news'.
Meanwhile, Bakhmut has been de facto enveloped.
But I'm sure Victoria Nuland's little fiefdom will win...
I'll wait till next month to get a status report, Russia seems to be doing the slow march of 'pound the living hell out of them with missiles and artillery till they leave or die' approach.
Which is effective so if next month it's still in Ukraine hands, they weren't lying, but if there's a Russian flag there between now and next week then they're talking out their ass.
The battle has been going on for 7 months or so. I'd be surprised if it fell within the week.
But as usual, the Westoid propaganda is "UKRAINE IS DOOMED" one week and "UKRAINE WINNING!" the next.
Of course, they gotta keep the money flowing. Unlike charities that can 'crisis hop' from one place to another, the media needs to switch from Ukraine is on deaths door to Ukraine victorious.
Too much negativity and people will go 'what's the point' and stop sending support to what looks like a waste of resources. Too much positivity and people will go 'great, looks like they don't need our help anymore' and wean themselves from contributing so gotta keep seesawing between those two extremes
He's not. I know english isn't your first language but perhaps you should brush up on how the past and future tenses work. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/verb-tenses/ "The past and future tenses often require changes or additions to the root form, such as the suffix –ed for the past tense and the modal verb will for the future."
Except it has not been. The Russians tried their best, but they were not able to finish the job, and now they've run out of steam and the battle has died down.
"but muh roads to Bakhmut are within artillery range!"
They have always been. Just as the logistics to the Russian lines are. Just because something is within artillery range doesn't mean you can fire on it meaningfully. You need to have direct observation to identify targets and correct fire. Obviously the Russians cannot do this, or else we'd be hearing about how the defenders of Bakhmut were starving and cut off from supply.
Russia can't use aircraft, as they'd be shot down. They can try to use drones, but they wouldn't last long trying to fly over a heavily defended area.
One of the big advantages Ukrainian artillery has is that the United States uses its outstanding spy satellite network to identify and pass UKR targets, so UKR tends to be very good at hitting static targets like supply depots and HQs. UKR obviously lacks the capabilities to identify these targets on its own, and Russia has no equivalent.
Some regressives on Reddit from TMOR told me that I'm lying about being European, and that I'm actually American, because "my English is too good". They think that calling you what they are - white and American - is a slam against you.
Imagine citing the regressives at Grammarly. Come on man, what is this? I'm pointing out that this guy has been gung-ho on this all along. It's not one of the many critics of being a Bakhmut dead-ender suddenly changing his mind, but a Vladimir Zelensky apparatchik.
Have you decided on whether or not Bakhmut is of any strategic importance?
They are allegedly catching pigeons for food.
[Weaponized Kesslerization has entered the chat.]
If you abuse your toys to be a co-belligerent in a war, you might get your toys taken away.
Deka is working overtime to become the dumbest motherfucker on this board. And we have Imp.