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.”
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.