“We have information that Ukraine is sending reservists to Bakhmut who were trained in Western countries. And we are suffering casualties among the reservists we intended to use for counter-offensives,” said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov. And: “We could lose everything here that we wanted to use for these counter-offensives.”
In an interview with Radio NV, the Ukrainian military historian Roman Ponomarenko also analyzed the danger of encirclement in Bakhmut as “very real”: “If we simply give up Bakhmut and withdraw our troops and equipment, nothing bad can happen. If the Russian troops close the ring, we will lose men and equipment.”
The clarity of the criticism of the army leadership and the Ukrainian president’s halt order, which is still in effect, is surprising: Ukrainian military analysts in the media are now openly casting doubt on the Ukrainian strategy ordered by Bakhmut.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed concern that the Russian invasion forces could quickly advance after capturing Bakhmut. Zelenskyj decided to continue the fight with army chief Zalushnyj and the commander of the ground forces Syrskyj, reports n-tv.
The fierce fighting for Bachmut has recently shifted more and more to the center of the city. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of the Wagner mercenary group, said: “The closer we get to the city center, the fiercer the fighting and the more artillery there is.” He admitted that the Ukrainians were fighting “for every metre”. Prigozhin: “The situation is difficult, very difficult.”
International military analysts have also been assessing the Ukrainian stop order for Bakhmut as problematic for weeks: Already in Mariuopol and Sievjerodonetsk, the Russian army was able to achieve successes against the Ukrainian troops due to delayed or non-issued withdrawal orders.