Ukraine said on Thursday it expects “very soon to take advantage” of Russian fatigue in Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting in the east of the country for several months and where Russian forces, with the paramilitary group Wagner in the front line, have suffered attacks. significant losses.
“The aggressor does not despair of taking Bakhmout at all costs, despite the losses in men and equipment,” Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandre Syrsky said on Telegram. The Russian troops mobilized en masse in and around Bakhmout “are losing considerable strength and are becoming exhausted”, he assured. “Very soon we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kiev, Kharkiv, Balaklya and Kupyansk,” he said, citing previous Ukrainian military victories.
War in Ukraine: “In Bakhmout, it is very likely that the Russians take drugs before attacking”
General Syrsky once again praised the “superhuman courage and superhuman bravery” of the Ukrainian military in the face of the Russian invasion.
These remarks come the day after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s second visit in three months to this area of intense fighting, where he displayed himself “on the front line” alongside the Ukrainian soldiers.
The Russian army, with the paramilitary group Wagner, now encircles Bakhmout from the north, east and south, making it difficult to supply Kiev soldiers.
But they resist, at the cost of heavy losses also on the Ukrainian side, a strategy assumed by the military command of Kiev which aims at a war of attrition, wearing out the Russians, before a Ukrainian counter-offensive expected soon.
If the strategic importance of the city of Bakhmout itself is disputed by experts, Moscow would like to announce a military victory, after several humiliating setbacks last summer and autumn which prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to mobilize several hundred of thousands of reservists, therefore civilians, and then to appoint a new commander in charge of operations in Ukraine.
The city of Bakhmout, which had 70,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion launched in February 2022, is now completely destroyed and almost entirely emptied of its civilian population.