Russian Troops Out of Their League
"Russia has re-energized its assault on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian Ministry of Defence and the Wagner Group have improved cooperation.""Ukrainian forces face significant resupply issues but have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede."British Military assessment"Our target in that direction is mostly infantry. There is a big concentration of the Russian Federation's 'human factor'.""The third one [of three shells of the artillery unit's guns] is finishing off. Most likely, I hope, the infantry they spotted was eliminated."Dmytro, 44, Ukrainian artillery unit commander"[Ukraine has to mount its expected counter-offensive soon or] gradually lose their combative potential.""For us, Bakhmut is very advantageous. We grind down the Ukrainian army there and restrain its manoeuvres."Wagner's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin
Ukrainian servicemen return from heavy fighting close to Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach |
Circumstances
have finally forced Ukrainian troops to withdraw from some Bakhmut
areas facing a renewed Russian onslaught in the battlefield city, ruined
after months of relentless battle. Moscow, says British intelligence,
is pressing to score a victory before Ukraine initiates its expected
spring counteroffensive. According to Ukrainian officials, Russia has
been drawing down its troops from other platforms on the Ukraine front
in favour of a massive push on Bakhmut.
This
is the city that Moscow has targeted as a coup to present to the
Russian public, representing a victory after nine months without
success. Should the city fall completely into Russian hands,
re-supplying Ukrainian troops will become more difficult. At the same
time Moscow is counting on its total capture to act as a morale booster
for its troops. It comes at a heavy cost in the lives of tens of
thousands of Russian soldiers; far fewer those of Ukrainian servicemen.
It
has been well demonstrated that there has been active acrimony between
the regular Russian military and the leader of the Wagner Group. Yevgeny
Prigozhin has been known to complain bitterly that the Russian military
heads are jealous of the successes realized by his group, and that they
have withheld restoring needed ammunition to his group, in a plot to
constrain their forward momentum. That the Russian Defence Ministry and
its main mercenary force have been at odds rather than cooperative was
marked a major Russian weak link.
Close
to Bakhmut a Ukrainian artillery unit's soldiers loaded shells into a
Soviet-era howitzer, firing toward the front line where they suspected
that Russia had massed its foot soldiers. The howitzer blasted three
shells, the first one meant to find range, the second to adjust aim, the
third to hit its presumed target. With a view to mortal destruction.
Ukrainian artillery fires toward the Russian front lines in Bakhmut Reuters |
Once
a city of 70,000 population pre-war, Bakhmut has represented the main
target in a massive winter offensive that has to the present yielded
scant gains for Russia, despite infantry ground combat with an intensity
reminiscent of Second World War combat. Russian commanders redirected
troops to Bakhmut from other areas, according to Ukrainian Deputy
Defence Minister Hanna Maliar. "The enemy is using its most professional units there, and resorting to a significant amount of artillery and aviation".
Ukraine
still holds the town's western districts while being subjected to
particularly intense Russian artillery fire over the previous 48 hours,
noted the British update. The city's capture would represent the first
substantive victory for Russia in eight months. An astonishing situation
given Russia's superior numbers and arms, and possibly reflective of
the inexperience of its many novice servicemen, substandard training,
and poor strategic moves on the part of their officers.
The
second half of 2022 saw major Ukrainian breakthroughs in
counteroffensives leading to a static front line in the last five
months, massive Russian offensive aside. Hundreds of thousands of
freshly conscripted reservists and thousands of convicts recruited as
mercenaries from jails account for a good deal of Russia's sluggish
impetus. Kyiv awaits the arrival of new arms from the West for its
counteroffensive in coming months, while defending its lines.
"We are readying our boys [for the spring offensive].""We look forward to the delivery of weapons promised by our partners.""We are bringing victory closer as much as possible.""[The main aim remains] the destruction of the occupiers [and] the depletion of their resources."Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Bakhmut has seen heavy fighting for months AP |
Labels: Bakhmut, Brutal Conflict, Losses, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Strategic Incompetence, Troop Sacrifices, Ukraine's Spring Counteroffensive
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