[Explore Time]The Battle of Bakhmut, Ukraine, the Russian Army at any cost | Russia-Ukraine War | Russia | Ukraine War

The city of Bachmut has been shattered.

In a routine speech on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that for a long time in the past, Bakhmut, Soder, Malinka, and Crimea had no room for survival because of the war. . Russia has already destroyed Bakhmut.

Located on the eastern front of Donetsk Province, Bakhmut (Bakhmut) is an important transportation hub with a population of just over 70,000. From here, follow the M03 road to the northwest to reach Slavyansk, and there is a H20 road that runs southwest to connect with the Ukrainian front. In the past six months, regardless of the situation in other parts of Ukraine, Russia has always been attacking Bakhmut, and the main force responsible for the attack is Wagner’s mercenaries.

When Ukraine counterattacked in the direction of Kharkov, Russia was fighting Bakhmut, Ukraine counterattacked the northern part of Kherson, Russia was fighting Bakhmut, and when Russia retreated from Kherson, it was still fighting Bakhmut. Now that winter is here, Russia is still fighting Bakhmut. Why is Russia so obsessed with Bachmut? What happened to Bachmut in the past six months?

Three Phases of the Battle of Bahmut

The battle for Bahmut over the past nine months can be divided into three phases. Bachmut had been without any fighting until May. This is because Russia’s main offensive direction at that time was the Kiev Kharkov and Kherson regions. Bakhmut is located on the front line of the Donbass. In the past eight years, it has been one of the cities that Ukraine has focused on operating defense lines. Russia wants to bypass the difficult bone of Donbass and attack important cities in Ukraine.

But after the defeats in Kharkov and Kiev, Russia refocused on the Donbas region. Russia’s attempt to take control of the entire Donbas region began in May. During the summer campaign, Russia finally captured Luhansk, Lysichansk and Severodonetsk in July, taking almost complete control of the Luhansk Oblast. Especially on May 22, Russia captured Popasna and began a small-scale attack in the direction of Bakhmut.

Russia’s defeat in Kharkov and Kherson made the Russian army realize that its offensive power was limited, and adjusted its strategic goals. The primary goal was to take down the city of Bakhmut. In the current entire Donbass war situation, Bakhmut is a transportation hub and plays a vital role. Capture here, the northwest can attack Slavyansk, and the southwest can cut off the entire defense line of Ukraine. It has extremely important strategic significance for both Russia and Ukraine.

Beginning on August 1, the Bakhmut battle ushered in the third and most brutal stage. Russia began to bombard the surrounding area of ​​Bakhmut and launched a large-scale ground attack. From August 1st to August 3rd, Russia used the air force and artillery fire to bomb the surrounding areas of Bakhmut for three days. On August 4th, the Wagner military group began to launch a ground offensive.

According to the Ukrainian official briefing on August 14, Russia had some success near Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian officials did not give detailed information at the time. In the next few months, the two sides repeatedly saw-saw in Bahemut, and paid a heavy price for casualties for a little progress that was completely inconspicuous. On September 20, Nagin, the military commander of the Wagner Group, was killed near Bakhmut.

On 7 October, the Russians advanced to several villages south and southeast of Bakhmut, particularly the village of O PY TN E located south of Bakhmut. If you pay attention to the battle reports from the Ukrainian front, you will find that throughout October and November, near Bakhmut, the two sides changed hands repeatedly, and the casualties were very heavy. For example, on November 10, Ukraine claimed to have caused 140 casualties in the Wagner Group in the past 24 hours. On October 27, the New York Times reported on the Battle of Bakhmut, according to which article Ukrainian troops had injured at least 290 people in the past 36 hours.

You see this video, lifeless in the barren land, a soldier puts a machine gun in his trench. Such a scene is not Verdun during World War I, but Ukraine in the 21st century.

In this one video we see the destroyed buildings in the center of Bahamut. Ukrainian soldiers are scrambling to evacuate the remaining civilians. Bachmut’s mode of warfare had entered trench warfare. A war in the 21st century has been turned into the mode of World War I.

There is also a small city called Soder 11 kilometers northeast of Bakhmut. Let’s see this video taken by a drone. The whole city was razed to the ground, and all the buildings were destroyed. We can see that no building is intact, and there are ruins everywhere.

Entering the winter, the Russian army’s artillery fires light up the Ukrainian army without sleeping bags

According to this report by the British “Guardian”, the front lines of Russia and Ukraine are very close, only 100 meters away, and they can even hear each other’s laughter. The Ukrainian video shows that the vast majority of Russian soldiers are conscripts who do not know how to call for artillery support.

Ukrainian soldiers said that we could see them shooting randomly from the woods, just like they did in Somalia, because they didn’t want to show their heads. Saw Russian conscripts wearing WW2-like metal helmets. The bodies we found on the battlefield showed that they had neither mobile phones nor any papers.

Ukrainian soldiers reported that some Russian troops wanted to surrender, but another group of Russian soldiers fired violently at the Ukrainian positions, preventing Russian soldiers who wanted to surrender from coming.

Ukrainian soldiers told reporters that our impression is that they use Wagner mercenaries to organize the attack and use newly mobilized soldiers to defend. We saw from the scout drones that they were very disorganized, which was a big reason we were able to kill so many enemies.

Ukrainian soldiers also said that in recent battles, they heard radio calls from Russians. Russian frontline soldiers called for artillery support, but were told that they did not have enough ammunition to provide artillery support. It can be seen that as the war has gone on for so long, even the artillery stockpiles of the Soviet era, the Russian artillery may have fought almost the same. Ukrainian soldiers said that in the early days of the war, Russian artillery fire was like a wall of fire, with flames and shells everywhere. Now Russian artillery fire is not as fierce as before.

Ukrainian soldier Nazar said that Russia tried to raid Ukraine in small groups at night after the first Russian offensive failed. But Ukraine is equipped with thermal imaging cameras that can see incoming targets very clearly at night.

However, the situation of the Ukrainians is not so good. Winter has come, but Nazar and his soldiers do not have enough sleeping bags. The first night they got here, they made it through the night by lighting a fire, and then he found a sleeping bag that would allow him to rest in the cold winter.

Ukraine has entered the cold winter, and the situation in the field is very bad. From this video, we can see that the country roads are already frozen, and Ukrainian soldiers can skate on them.

Russia spares no expense to turn Bakhmut into ruins

So far, Russia has gradually formed a siege around Bakhmut, launching attacks on Bakhmut from multiple directions at the same time from the east, south and northeast.

Judging from the news from the front line, the situation on the Ukrainian front line is not optimistic. The town of Soder in the northeast of Bakhmut and the villages in the south have fallen, and Bakhmut has also been beaten into a pile of ruins. I think that, probably in the near future, Ukrainian troops will have to withdraw from Bakhmut.

Russia’s success in the region has been achieved regardless of the casualties of front-line soldiers. After the fall of Bakhmut, it means that Russia will be able to continue in the direction of Slavyansk and Kras Thomas Kohl. Yet the region has been the Ukrainian command center for the entire Donbass for the past few years. Ukraine built huge fortifications here. Every step forward, Russia has to pay a huge price in casualties.

It took Russia more than four months from August 1 to December, regardless of any casualties, to take down such a small city as Bakhmut. With Russia’s current combat situation, it is impossible to advance to Slavyansk. What’s more, Russia had previously attacked from north to south, and wanted to attack Slavyansk from the north from Izyum to the south. At present, Izyum has been retaken by Ukraine early, and the sides and rear of Slavyansk are very stable. It is difficult to pose a huge threat to Slavyansk only from the direction of Bakhmut.

From the Battle of Bachmut, we can see that modern warfare is very cruel. Sun Tzu is the founder of the military strategist. The most important thought in Sun Tzu’s Art of War is to fight cautiously, and you must be cautious when launching a war. Sun Tzu’s Art of War said that the Lord should not be angry and start an army, and the general should not be angry and go to war. Anger can be restored to joy, anger can be restored to joy, a subjugated country cannot be revived, and the dead cannot be resurrected. Therefore, Mingjun is cautious, and good generals are vigilant, this is the way to stabilize the country and the whole army. This sentence should really make Putin and Xi Jinping listen carefully.

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Produced by the program team of “Exploring Time”

Responsible Editor: Li Hao#