Ukraine hints it may be forced to abandon Bakhmut to Russians

BLOOMBERG

Ukrainian officials are signaling that the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut may soon be impossible to defend as Russian troops level the area.
“The enemy is gradually destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, for reinforcement and defense,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address Monday evening.
The top commander in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, described the fighting in Bakhmut as “very tense.” The Kremlin has deployed some of the best-trained assault units from the Wagner mercenary group to break through Ukrainian lines and encircle Bakhmut, no matter the losses, he said on a military Telegram channel.
As Moscow intensifies its campaign on the eastern front, the tone from Ukrainian officials on the embattled city marks a reversal. Zelenskiy declared on Feb. 2 that Kyiv won’t surrender Bakhmut. Less than three weeks later, he said his forces won’t hold the city “at any cost and with everyone dying.”
A high-intensity fight for the city in the eastern Donetsk region has been underway since August, making it one of the longest sustained campaigns to seize any single town since Russia launched its invasion just over a year ago.
Recent videos published by Ukrainian military show a landscape of charred buildings and random remaining occupants gathering snow to melt for water. Bakhmut’s population plunged from 70,000 before the war to fewer than 6,000 as civilians fled the approaching front line.
The focus on Bakhmut has puzzled many military observers, including some defense ministries among Ukraine’s allies. The city isn’t considered a significant logistics hub and would offer limited strategic advantage to Russian forces once won.
US authorities have advised Ukraine to play for time as heavy weaponry, especially tanks, are due to arrive, according to a senior official who declined to be identified. To gather resources for a spring counteroffensive in the south, Ukraine may have to surrender Bakhmut, European officials have said.
Capturing Bakhmut would be a step towards Russia seizing all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, which President Vladimir Putin declared part of Russia — in addition to the claims on the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions — in the wake of illegal referendums in September.
For Ukraine, the goal is likely to weaken Russian forces in urban combat, while maintaining enough fresh reserves of its own to launch a counter-offensive in the spring, backed by newly arrived heavy weapons from the West.
The most effective element of Russia’s offensive has been the Wagner group of Yevgeny Prigozhin, often referred to as “Putin’s chef.” The campaign became tangled in his bitter power struggles with the formal command of the Russian armed forces.
Wagner’s tactics have represented a departure from conventional Russian methods, as Prigozhin added thousands of inexperienced prison convicts to his forces, offering them exoneration once their service was complete. Wagner used them to front small infantry assault teams, backed by reduced artillery cover, to attack on foot in multiple waves. The UK defense ministry has estimated that 50% of the former prisoners sent to Bakhmut were killed in the process.
Russia blames ukraine for drone attacks
Russia blamed Ukraine for drone attacks in the Krasnodar and Adygea regions near the Black Sea but said they were repelled and damage was limited, Interfax reported.
Ukraine hasn’t claimed responsibility for incursions deep in Russian territory, which have become more common as the Kremlin’s year-old invasion has continued.
Explosions were reported near an oil refinery in Tuapse, according to state news agency Tass. Outside Moscow, a drone crashed in the Kolomna region but didn’t cause any damage, Tass said.