Bachmut before the fall?
Pentagon credits the Kremlin with only tiny successes
2/28/2023 9:33 p.m
The fiercely contested city of Bakhmut could be on the verge of falling. The Wagner group of mercenaries throws their best people into the fire there. However, a high-ranking US defense politician is certain that these small gains in territory are of no use to Russia.
A senior US defense official has said he doesn’t expect Russia to gain significant territory in Ukraine any time soon. Smaller parts of the territory could change hands in the coming weeks and months, explained Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl at a hearing in the House of Representatives. From his point of view, however, there is nothing to suggest that Russia could make significant gains in territory sometime in the next year.
According to Ukrainian information, the Russian mercenary group Wagner is deploying its most qualified fighters in the fiercely contested town of Bakhmut. The “enemy” sent its “best-trained Wagner assault troops” to Bakhmut “despite significant losses,” said the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyj. Russia wants to use the Wagner mercenaries to break through the defenses of the Ukrainian troops and surround Bakhmut, commander Syrskyj said. The situation is “extremely tense”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had previously described the battles over Bakhmut as “increasingly complicated”. In his video speech on Monday evening, Zelenskyi emphasized: “The enemy is destroying everything that can help hold our positions.” According to the governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, only around 5,000 civilians, including 140 children, live in Bakhmut, which once had 70,000 inhabitants.
“Bachmut will probably fall”
Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut told AFP news agency that Russian soldiers were planning heavy attacks. The opposing side is making progress and “Bachmut will most likely fall,” a 40-year-old soldier told AFP. “They say the Russian soldiers are idiots and drug addicts,” said the 40-year-old. “But they have smart people there who know how to fight. They’re learning, just like us.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has meanwhile given Ukraine the “long-term” prospect of being included in the military alliance. “NATO allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said in Helsinki. However, this is “a long-term perspective”. At the moment, the most important thing is to support Ukraine in the Russian war of aggression, explained Stoltenberg. But when the war is over, “we have to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself”.