"Meat grinder" and "gate to hell"

So they say about the battles for Bakhmut. What is happening there and why Russia is trying by all means to take control of the city

Last weeks, the city of Bakhmut has become the center of military operations in Ukraine. Russia sent there hundreds of mobilized and prisoners from Wagner PMCs, and the battles themselves call the Bakhmut meat grinder. The other day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky even arrived in Bakhmut - there he handed awards to the military. "Cold" is understanding why Bakhmut is important and whether this battle will change the course of the war.

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Why are news regularly about Bakhmut? Apparently, this is the hottest point in Ukraine

Afterthe retreat from Kherson, Russian forces regrouped and concentrated in different areas of Donbass. For the past few weeks, the most active battles are carried out near the city of Bakhmut, located 85 kilometers from Donetsk.

The first battles near Bakhmut were back in July, when Russian troops tried to take control of the Bakhmut Lisichansk highway. By August, Bakhmut was the only place in the direction of which the Russian troops did not retreat, but continued to attack.

Now Russia concentrated most of the military weapons around Bakhmut and sent mobilized and mercenaries from the Wagner PMC. According to Tarasovets, an officer of special forces by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, mobilized Russians form assault detachments.

The assault detachments have several functions. One of them is to distract attention to themselves, while stronger groups are trying to advance to Ukrainian positions secretly. Also, assault detachments make reconnaissance in battle - they provoke fire on themselves to find the enemy’s position. For deviation from the course, according to UK intelligence, prisoners from PMCs are threatened with execution. Wagner's mercenaries do not so much allow the assault to advance as they exhaust the army of Ukraine, forcing to constantly defend themselves.

“I would say that the ratio of“ Wagnerians ”and mobilized Russians without experience is approximately one by four. The bulk, of course, is made up of military personnel of the Russian army, who do not have experience in hostilities and often do not even serve, ”says the birch.

The Ukrainian military continues to keep the defense of Bakhmut. In the December report of British intelligence, it was noted that street battles were underway on the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut. This was confirmed by the pro-Russian telegram channel Wargonzo, as well as the Ukrainian military . War Gonzo also wrote about the attempts of the PMC group to take the city "in the half -ring."

The Armed Forces of Ukraine claim that the Russian military “literally walk along the corpses”, trying to storm the city, and pro-Russian telegram channels disseminate information that the army of Ukraine does not take the bodies of its military. In addition to them, civilians die from mortar and artillery shelling, there are no water, light and warmth in their homes. Last month, about 60% of urban infrastructure was damaged or destroyed in Bakhmut.

On the 300th day of the war, Vladimir Zelensky personally arrived at the front line in Bakhmut. He awarded the fighters and honored the memory of the dead minute of silence. “Bakhmut defenders deserve maximum support and the highest gratitude. Therefore, today I am next to them, ”he wrote in a telegram channel.

“The costs associated with six months of cruel, stubborn and exhausting battles around Bakhmut are much outweighed by any operational advantage that Russians can get from the capture of Bakhmut,” one of the reports of the Institute for the Study of War said .

But if you take Bakhmut so hard, why is it to Russia? There are different versions

Ukrainian military experts have several versions why Russian troops are so actively fighting for Bakhmut. The first version - perhaps the fact is that Bakhmut is an important transport hub.

The spokeswoman for the eastern group of the Ukrainian troops Sergey Chervaty said that the main task of the Russian army is to break through the defense, go out into the operational space and try to go to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk in order to capture the Donbass completely. In addition to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, roads to Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Seversk, Konstantinovka, Gorlovka and Lugansk pass through Bakhmut.

Military expert Sergei Grabsky believes that the capture of Bakhmut will not help the Russian army to break through to Slavyansk, because in this direction the resistance of Ukraine was created for more than one year. Continuing the offensive, the military will constantly stumble upon the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

There is another version. “From a military point of view, Bakhmut has no strategic importance,” says Alexander Syrfa, commander of the Ukrainian ground forces. “But at the same time, he has a psychological meaning.” The Polish military analyst Konrad Music adheres to the same version. He is sure that the reason for the fierce offensive of the Russian Army is in a psychological complexity to admit defeat. According to music, even if the Armed Forces of Ukraine surrender the city, the situation in this part of Ukraine will not change.

The member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Fedor Venislavsky explains the attacks on Bakhmut by the fact that Surovikin wants to show at least some victory after his appointment-on October 8 he became the commander of the troops. Nikolai Belyeskov, a researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Research in Kiev, believes that this is how the Russian side is trying to divert attention from defeats in the fall.
The Institute for the Study of the War believes that the situation under Bakhmut resembles an attack on Lisichansk and Severodonetsk: the Russian army took them at the cost of large losses, but this did not bring strategic advantages.

“The literally open gates of hell are in Bakhmut,” Tarazovets said in an interview with “Currently”, an officer of special forces by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to him, the Russians during September and October constantly carried out frontal, “essentially suicidal” attacks. “They climb and climb, in groups of 30 people, trying to squeeze ours. The number of dead people does not bother them: they put them some - they release others, and go, and go, and go, ” says another fighter. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also talks about the "madness of the Russian command" in Bakhmut, which drives people "to death."

Whatever the goals of Russia, experts agree that the assault on the city seriously depleted the resources of the Russian army. Military expert Alexander Kovalenko claims that artillery in Bakhmut is concentrated more than in other regions of hostilities. The Institute for the Study of the War noted that Russian offenses around Bakhmut absorb a significant part of combat power, helping Ukrainian counterattacks in other places.

What does the Russian side say? It seems the same as Ukrainian, but in other words

Among the pro -Russian experts in Bakhmut there is also no consensus, but in general their versions are similar to Ukrainian.

Evgeny Krutikov, military observer of the newspaper Vazh, explains the assault on the fact that this is the only transport hub remaining with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the former special forces officer Anatoly Matviychuk, the capture of Bakhmut will allow you to take control of the road to Kramatorsk, and from there to go to Slavyansk. “When we go to the direction of Artemovsk, we will throw them 12-15 kilometers, [Ukrainian] receiver artillery will no longer be able to reach the industrial zone of Donetsk,” he says . Analyst Vladislav Shurygin expressed similar thoughts.

The head of the occupied Donetsk Denis Pushilin explains that the capture of Bakhmut will violate the chain of supplies of ammunition and the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as increase the chance of capturing Kramatorsk by the Russian army.

At the same time, in the “military review” they write that Bakhmut is not at all the same important strategic direction, such as raisins. The capture of Bakhmut, according to the authors of the article, does not guarantee a further advance of Russia due to the fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Among the reasons for the assault on Bakhmut, the “military review” note an attempt to move the line of defense from Donetsk, so that “less flies along it and [from the city] remains more than from Bakhmut.” The text also states that for Moscow, Bakhmut at the end of the year could become the very “naked prestige that the team, which seemed to be the first time losing with the bang”.

The founder of the PMC Wagner Evgeny Prigozhin says that the army’s task is “this is not Bakhmut himself, but the destruction of the Ukrainian army and a decrease in its combat potential, which is extremely positively affected in other directions.” At the same time, Prigozhin notes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are resisted by a level that, perhaps, "has not yet been in the history of the last century."