Nicholas Tonev
Since Saturday, confusion reigns around the capture, or not, of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmout by Russia. Moscow claims to control the entirety of this locality, which kyiv denies after having nevertheless confirmed, in an ambiguous way, the loss of this city.
Difficult to know which breast to devote to. For a little over 24 hours, the vagueness has persisted as to whether or not the Ukrainian city of Bakhmout has been taken by Russian troops. Announced this Saturday by Russia, it was first ambiguously confirmed by kyiv before President Volodymyr Zelensky’s entourage denied it. A rather singular situation in which both parties can potentially tell the truth.
For Moscow, the capture of Bakhmout is certainly total from a territorial point of view. But insofar as, via the north and the south, the Ukrainian forces advance, it is also possible to say that nothing is done. This explains the ambiguities of President Zelensky.
Russian soldiers under threat of Ukrainian fire
Moreover, for a soldier, a city capture is only successful when the latter is overtaken and secured. Which, in the present case, is far from being recorded. Bakhmout is located in a basin, dominated by hills fortified by the Ukrainians, with great reinforcements of trenches and bunkers.
The Russian soldiers who are currently in the city and who have seized it are therefore permanently under the threat of Ukrainian fire. Their situation remains extremely fragile and the losses in men are monstrous. For the time being, it is impossible to identify the resources available to Moscow to keep Bakhmout. Enough to allow Volodymyr Zelensky to play on words and on the situation, especially since, for the Ukrainians, the essential thing is to continue the fighting and prevent the opponent from leaving the area and taking the road to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the regional capital.