Control of Bakhmut (Artemovsk (Bakhmut)), which has been disputed since May 2022, is already more political than military. In this sense, the assault on the city can be compared to the battle of Verdun during the First World War. Such a review in the Russian media program “What was it?!” Express military expert, director of the Moscow Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) Ruslan Pukhov.
“It must be said with absolute certainty that the assault on this town or even a town (if one wants to use that word) was for both sides a kind of remake of the Battle of Verdun in the First World War. , when political considerations trump the military,” he said.
According to the expert, for both Ukrainians and Russians, Bakhmut “became a kind of symbol”, therefore, as the expert notes, “a disproportionate number of armed forces, and mainly personnel” were involved in the defense and capture of this “city”, as noted by the expert.
“Because, from the point of view of purely military logic, the Ukrainians could leave Bakhmut and, in fact, gain a foothold on other lines. However, it was decided to defend this city,” Pukhov explained.
Russian media’s interlocutor added that due to the statements of officials, as well as pro-government Russian and Ukrainian bloggers, who give “inaccurate information”, one gets the impression that “the Russian side has lost a certain number of positions, and there is a threat to cut off the Russian group, in particular the fighters of the PMC “Wagner”. All this allegedly suggests that the situation in this area “could become a serious problem for the Russian command”. whether or not this is true will only become clear after some time, the expert stressed.
“But even now we can say that he has become such a center of gravity precisely because political considerations have intervened, not military ones. And in general, it’s bad for a war when political considerations interfere, because then human lives are sacrificed on the battlefield,” Pukhov concluded.
The Battle of Verdun, also known as the Verdun Meat Grinder, account one of the biggest and bloodiest in the history of the First World War. The fighting for this region of northeastern France took place from February 21 to December 21, 1916: during this time, the Germans could only advance 6 to 8 km and take the forts of Duamon and Vaud, but were the first stopped by the French, then completely reduced to the starting positions.
In total, about a million people died on both sides in this battle (600,000 Germans and 358,000 French). It was in this battle that light machine guns, rifle grenade launchers, flamethrowers and even aircraft were first widely used.
On May 11, Prigozhin said that “in the direction of Artyomovsk, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are entering the flanks, and, unfortunately, in some places they are successful.” In the evening of the same day, Russian military correspondents began to write in their telegram channels about a possible counteroffensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In turn, the Ministry of Defense said that the general situation in the area of the military operation is under control, and reports of “breakthroughs in defense” are not true. However, already on May 14, the department reported that during the day the Ukrainian Armed Forces made “massive attempts to break through the defences” north and south of Bakhmut, but Russian troops repelled these attacks. May 19, acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin declared that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) “deliberately want to break through the flanks” in Bakhmut. According to him, this is done to complicate the advance of the Russian army.
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